Seven experts on what’s gone so wrong with the Trump impeachment proceedings—and what America should do about it
The articles of impeachment haven’t yet been drafted against President Donald Trump, and seemingly everyone has a theory of what’s already gone wrong. Weeks of high-profile hearings and news reports on the president’s behavior have done little to change the minds of voters or lawmakers on either side, and few in Washington expect the exercise to end in anything other than a partisan standoff.
The problem with the impeachment process is not with the Constitution itself—it’s with the apparent unwillingness of Republican members of Congress to vote their conscience and independently and objectively assess established facts.
In other words, the criminal justice system would deal with crimes that justify jail time under federal statutory law, and impeachment would deal with political wrongdoing that justifies removal from office. Today, the two issues are being blurred, as we saw in Wednesday's hearings, when Prof. Jonathan Turley argued that a crime must be proven in order to impeach, with the other three experts—Profs.
From left to right: Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, his predecessor Archibald Cox, and Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr. | AP One cannot expect impeachment to work as designed if Congress does not work at all. But it still serves a useful function.High Crimes & Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump.
Conversely, the loyal supporters of Mr. Trump are likely to complain that impeachment is broken because all the inquiries into his behavior are nothing more than vengeful efforts by Trump’s opponents to overturn the results of the 2016 election. And as for public virtue, at least if that means some minimal devotion to seeking truth and promoting the national interest over partisan advantage, I will leave to the reader the judgment of whether those qualities are on display, and if so by whom, during the current impeachment debates.
But the Constitution is a guideline, not a handbook. It does not define the terms “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which is what seems to stick in the throat of the process. For what are they? In65, Alexander Hamilton clarified—sort of: a high crime is an abuse of executive authority, proceeding from “an abuse or violation of some public trust.” Impeachment is a “national inquest into the conduct of public men.
The process is difficult to be sure, but it has held together during far more difficult times. Think of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, which occurred after a brutal Civil War and the first-ever presidential assassination, when the country had just freed the 4 million people it had held in bondage and that Johnson wanted to keep in a state of perpetual subordination.
Juries’ legitimacy relies on their impartiality. To include jurors who were involved in or knew about the alleged crime would inescapably taint the end result. The same is true here.Allan J. Lichtman is a history professor and author ofImpeachment is not the cancellation of an election. It stands equally in the Constitution with election by the Electoral College as a means of determining who is fit to serve as president.
There is not enough yet on the record to move Republicans in the House or Senate. Perhaps no evidence, however compelling, will do so. But there is hope for the Democrats, who might only be able to fix a political problem with a political solution.
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