{"id":410,"date":"2021-01-15T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americaschallenges.wordpress.com\/?p=410"},"modified":"2021-01-15T09:02:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T14:02:00","slug":"can-the-president-be-impeached-after-he-leaves-office-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/?p=410","title":{"rendered":"Can the president be impeached after he leaves office? NO!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never before has a senate trial for an impeached president been held after they left office, and J. Michael Luttig, a former judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, made the case that doing so would be unconstitutional. He penned an op-ed in the Washington Post<\/a> last night to outline the case. <\/p>\n

To quote the key parts of his argument: <\/p>\n

\n

The sequencing of the House impeachment proceedings before Trump\u2019s departure from office and the inauguration of the new president, followed by a Senate impeachment trial, perhaps months later, raises the question of whether a former president can be impeached after he leaves office. <\/p>\n

The Constitution itself answers this question clearly: No, he cannot be. Once Trump\u2019s term ends on Jan. 20, Congress loses its constitutional authority to continue impeachment proceedings against him \u2014 even if the House has already approved articles of impeachment. <\/p>\n

Therefore, if the House of Representatives were to impeach the president before he leaves office, the Senate could not thereafter convict the former president and disqualify him under the Constitution from future public office. <\/p>\n

The reason for this is found in the Constitution itself. Trump would no longer be incumbent in the Office of the President at the time of the delayed Senate proceeding and would no longer be subject to \u201cimpeachment conviction\u201d by the Senate, under the Constitution\u2019s Impeachment Clauses. Which is to say that the Senate\u2019s only power under the Constitution is to convict \u2014 or not \u2014 an incumbent president<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Luttig says that Article II Section 4 of the Constitution confirms the view that the purpose of impeachment is to remove from office a president before he can cause further harm. That article and section reads \u201cThe President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.\u201d <\/p>\n

Furthermore, Article I Section 3 reads \u201cJudgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.\u201d <\/p>\n

As for Pelosi desiring impeachment to prevent Trump from running again, Luttig says \u201cThis is incorrect because it is a constitutional impeachment of a president that authorizes his constitutional disqualification. If a president has not been constitutionally impeached, then the Senate is without the constitutional power to disqualify him from future office.\u201d <\/p>\n

Then again, when have Democrats let the Constitution get in their way before?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Never before has a senate trial for an impeached president been held after they left office, and J. Michael Luttig, a former judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, made the case that doing so would be unconstitutional. He penned an op-ed in the Washington Post last night to outline […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,19,20,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crazy-democrats","category-democrat-corruprion","category-democrat-fraud","category-looney-left"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendreger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}