But if the House never sends the articles, then Trump could say with strong justification that he was never actually impeached. And that’s probably not the message Congressional Democrats are hoping to send.
Bloomberg:
Now that the House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Donald Trump, what is the constitutional status of the two articles of impeachment? Must they be transmitted to the Senate to trigger a trial, or could they be held back by the House until the Senate decides what the trial will look like, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has hinted?
The Constitution doesn’t say how fast the articles must go to the Senate. Some modest delay is not inconsistent with the Constitution, or how both chambers usually work.
But an indefinite delay would pose a serious problem. Impeachment as contemplated by the Constitution does not consist merely of the vote by the House, but of the process of sending the articles to the Senate for trial. Both parts are necessary to make an impeachment under the Constitution: The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment. And the Senate must actually hold a trial.
If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all.
That’s because “impeachment” under the Constitution means the House sending its approved articles of to the Senate, with House managers standing up in the Senate and saying the president is impeached.
As for the headlines we saw after the House vote saying, “TRUMP IMPEACHED,” those are a media shorthand, not a technically correct legal statement. So far, the House has voted to impeach (future tense) Trump. He isn’t impeached (past tense) until the articles go to the Senate and the House members deliver the message.
Once the articles are sent, the Senate has a constitutional duty to hold a trial on the impeachment charges presented. Failure for the Senate to hold a trial after impeachment would deviate from the Constitution’s clear expectation.
For the House to vote “to impeach” without ever sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial would also deviate from the constitutional protocol. It would mean that the president had not genuinely been impeached under the Constitution; and it would also deny the president the chance to defend himself in the Senate that the Constitution provides. MORE HERE
This from the finger sniffing “constitutional scholar” who previously said “Trump could be impeached for suggesting in a tweet that obama tapped his wires”?
I wonder if Feldman’s parents made him sit at the kiddie cardboard table at Thanksgiving.
Hah-vad and Yale aren’t sending us their best “constitutional scholars” now are they?
“We impeached the President!”
No you didn’t. Until you complete the process you ain’t ‘peached anything!
The only thing they can really say is they half-assed it… like usual!
Hilarious. Nadler’s loser wants to make like he’s a lawyer again.
“You guuuuys!!! You’re doing it wroooonnngggg!!!”
What an absolute shit show!
I think the only reason Nancy is holding out is for Christmas dinner conversation. Unfortunately for her and the psychotic Democrat party. Red pills are fucking abundant! Nobody is going to sit by the fire in their pajamas and discuss healthcare over a hot chocolate with marshmallows, much less peach mints! These fucking retreads are killing themselves, and I love it!
it’s beginning to look like their strategy is to withhold the Articles of Impeachment & have d’rat Senate candidates run on ‘vote for me & I’ll vote to impeach’
may work in some races … maybe even enough that they can peel away Rino Romney, Collins, a couple of other Quislings … & they just might pull it off
… you know they’re thinking this crap … it’s what commies do
If he tells you how smart he is, he’s sure you’ll believe it.
“…it would also deny the president the chance to defend himself in the Senate that the Constitution provides. ”
…that’s how Democrats roll. Accusation = guilt for any non-Democrat. No defense permitted since you have already been deemed guilty. Now get in the “shower”, they’ve got 67 million to go…
If you read and believe in our Constitution, we are justified in anything we do to these assholes.
Blutto Blutarski loves the headline MJA…..
btw …. Susan Collins voted ‘Not Guilty’ on both counts for Clinton’s Impeachment trial
@willygoat ~ that’s ‘Senator Blutarski’!
@ ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ….LOL….
President Trump is not impeached until convicted by both House and Senate.
Currently this is Half assed job, which is Nazi’s trademark.
Citizens of IOTW spread this far and wide, this motherfucker perjured himself when he said that his ‘opinion changed’ about impeachment, when the Mueller/Weisman report came out (I think he said in July?) but yet his twatter history says otherwise!!!
#NoahFeldmanPerJuredHimself
The president suggested a prayer and ‘weeee shaaaaall ooooovercooooome’….the scum.
Sorry but I am so effing sick of these scumbags…jeez more alliteration…
Does anyone remember Walter Mitty? Anybody?
This guy, the ‘I know it all’ kid loy-ya, reminds me of Danny Kay, spitting image, and I mean, clear throat, SPIT into gutter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awthjYwVAr4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mitty
Happy Holydays everyone btw…
The politicians 3-ring circus runs wild while they all are purposely letting the country be deliberately destroyed by their own actions. No matter who eventually holds the reins of this country, the future bodes ill for Americans, except perhaps for all the un-American aliens swarming into and around this country.
They’re tearing America apart — deliberately
Published: Wednesday, 18 December 2019
https://johnkaminski.org/index.php/john-kaminski-american-writer-and-critic-2/234-they-re-tearing-america-apart-deliberately
tRuth – this is the original ‘three ring circus’, if may I Abbott and Costello:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MISfS0m0KI
So, this country has its own three ring circus or at least is experiencing one now like you said.
The Democrats are creating a Separation, Nullification if not Divorce, of the contract that was set up between the citizens even in a pre and post 1877 environment then…and now…now.
Did anyone really expect the democrats running this circus to start carrying about the facts, the law, or the proper impeachment protocol, after their partisan votes to approve their silly report?
However, they’ve also crapped in a house chamber pot, before discovering there is no lid and becoming aware their hands are super glued to the pot. Now what? They’re asking themselves. It’s what they get for ignoring earlier warnings they are doing it wrong.