Can the Senate try Trump after his term is over?
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McConnell circulates procedures for second Senate impeachment trial of Trump
The document, which was first reported by The Washington Post, lays out how the Senate would proceed if the House approves articles of impeachment and transmits them to the upper chamber before or by Jan. 19, when senators are scheduled to resume regular business after the January recess.
McConnell says the most likely scenario if the House impeaches Trump in his final 12 days in office is for the Senate to receive a message from the lower chamber notifying it of the action on Jan. 19. That would then give the Senate the option of ordering the House managers to present those articles on the same day.
Senate Impeachment Rules require that at 1 p.m. on the day after the managers exhibit the articles, the Senate “must proceed to their consideration,” the memo states.
As a result, the Senate trial would not begin until one hour after President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath of office.
“The Senate trial would therefore begin after President Trump’s term has expired – either one hour after its expiration on Jan. 20, or twenty-five hours after its expiration on Jan. 21,” the memo states.
The Senate impeachment rules state that unless the Senate orders otherwise, once the trial has commenced, the Senate “shall continue in session from day to day (Sundays excepted) … until final judgment shall be rendered,” according to McConnell’s memo.
A Senate impeachment trial after Trump leaves office? Some experts say yes
Legal experts are divided into three camps of opinion, however, on what happens if the president leaves office.
One group says a president can be impeached only while in office. "I tend to believe it is only for current office holders," said Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, author of "Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide."
According to a second group of scholars, if the House votes to impeach while the president is in office, the Senate can proceed to a trial even after the president has left office.
"Once an impeachment begins in the House, it may continue to a Senate trial. I don't see any constitutional problem with the Senate acting fast or slowly," said Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
And a third view is that the entire process can begin even after the president is out of office.
"The constitutional case for late impeachment has more strengths and fewer flaws than the case against it," wrote Brian Kalt, a professor at the Michigan State University College of Law in a widely cited law review article on the subject.
No president has ever been impeached after leaving office, but there is one legal precedent that may be important.
In 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap was investigated by the House for corruption. Just minutes before the House was set to vote on his impeachment, he raced to the White House and handed his resignation to President Ulysses Grant.
The House went ahead and impeached him anyway, and the Senate proceeded to have a trial. A majority voted to convict, but not the two-thirds required, so he was acquitted. The scholars in the second camp point to this example to bolster their argument that even after leaving office, a president could be convicted and barred from holding future federal office.
Could Trump sue to stop a Senate trial? He could try, but it would be a tough case to win, because the Constitution says the Senate shall have "the sole power to try all impeachments."
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"Let's give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we'll send the articles sometime after that," Clyburn said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper.
"It's up to the Speaker to do whatever she thinks is the best thing to do. But all I'm saying is you can manage this in such a way that you make an effective presentation to the Senate," Clyburn added.
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In 100 days, frankly who gives a damn? By then Trump will have faded into the memory. He will be facing criminal charges in at least one state and possibly federal charges as well. What is impeaching him again going to do? You may as well impeach the boogeyman.
If you’re going to do it, do it straight away. Sure the process might not finish until after Biden becomes the President, but get it out the way. A straight majority of the Senate can vote to bar Trump from being able to seek federal elected office. It is very likely that a majority of Senators would agree to this in the wake of a second impeachment over the terrorist insurrection.
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From FOX 47 News, in Michigan: Can a president be impeached after he leaves office, and what penalty would he face if convicted?
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The Founding Fathers shoulda thought of this. That a sitting POTUS might wax to his most evil right at the end of his term in office- for this very reason- to extend his term in office -by trying to reverse an honest election.
So its not spelled out whether they can impeach after he leaves office. The Constitution does say that the purpose of impeachment is only to "remove the person from office", and "to forbid him from running for future office". So the second purpose would still apply to a one term POTUS even if the motions of impeachment are not set into motion until after his successor is sworn in.
Sure, that's probably not all on the founding fathers. I get the sense that there is a lot that just hasn't been examined in years, decades, or even centuries, but things change, and that's why laws and regulations need to as well. That said, I also get the sense that the strange, convoluted nature of the US political system can largely be attributed to the founding fathers wanting to establish something like a democracy, but also wanting to distance themselves as much as possible from the way the British ran things. Sure, what they came up with works, but it certainly came at the cost of having a foundation that, at least in my opinion, isn't as sturdy as it appears on the surface.
Trump, in a sense, forced us to be reticent when it comes to exposing obvious dictatorial/anti democratic tendencies.
We were afraid to call him out, say, on his attempts to limit freedom of the press.
We have an unglued, paranoiac person as President, and he’s been that way since before he actually became President.
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Sure, that's probably not all on the founding fathers. I get the sense that there is a lot that just hasn't been examined in years, decades, or even centuries, but things change, and that's why laws and regulations need to as well. That said, I also get the sense that the strange, convoluted nature of the US political system can largely be attributed to the founding fathers wanting to establish something like a democracy, but also wanting to distance themselves as much as possible from the way the British ran things. Sure, what they came up with works, but it certainly came at the cost of having a foundation that, at least in my opinion, isn't as sturdy as it appears on the surface.
Canadian PMs have even more power than American presidents. Imagine if the President was also the leader of the House Majority and you'll have an idea how much power is concentrated in the hands of Canada's PM.
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