“Could Donald Trump be impeached for treason against the people of the United States for forcing us to be allied with our enemy Russia/Putin and against our democratic friends in Ukraine/Zelensky without our consent, which seems to me what he is doing by his lies and his actions?”
— Diane Garratt, Bakersfield, Calif.
Hi Diane,
In theory, Donald Trump could be impeached for treason. It’s one of the specific examples laid out in the Constitution of what presidents can be impeached for: “The 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.”
That last part — “high crimes and misdemeanors” — might sound familiar in the impeachment context because it was the basis for impeaching Trump (both times) and Bill Clinton; it was also the basis for Andrew Johnson’s 1868 impeachment. (None of them were convicted by the Senate.)
But we can safely assume the Republican-controlled House of Representatives won’t impeach Trump for anything he has done to date. Indeed, we might consider the practical wisdom of Gerald Ford, who’s perhaps best known for pardoning Richard Nixon. When Ford was a congressman before becoming president, he famously said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” At this moment in history, it’s hard to think of an offense by Trump that the current House majority would consider impeachable. Have any questions or comments for me? I’d love to hear from you! Please email deadlinelegal@nbcuni.com for a chance to be featured in a future newsletter.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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