Trump critics say another impeachment is not ‘off the table.’ Could it really happen?
President Trump has already survived a House impeachment and Senate trial.
Is it possible he could face another?
No president has been impeached twice, but at least one Democratic lawmaker — and a disaffected Republican — have suggested more impeachment articles could be in Trump’s future following new controversies this week.
The renewed impeachment talk comes after the Senate acquitted Trump this month on House impeachment articles accusing him of abusing power and obstructing Congress for pressuring Ukraine to announce investigations into the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, a rival in the 2020 presidential race.
Impeachment over Roger Stone case?
Trump faces criticism this week for calling federal prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations for 2016 campaign advisor Roger Stone “horrible and very unfair” after Stone was convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and more.
Once Trump spoke out, the Justice Department lowered the recommendations — and the earlier prosecutors involved quit, the Associated Press reported.
That apparent intervention raised questions about how Democrats might try to constrain Trump, with CNN host Jake Tapper asking a leading House Democrat Wednesday if Congress would consider a second impeachment.
“You know, we’re not going to take our options off the table,” Rep. Eric Swalwell of California said of the prospect during the interview. “We don’t wake up in the morning wanting to impeach him — we want to work with him on prescription drugs, background checks and infrastructure. But we’re not going to let him just torch this democracy because he thinks that he’s been let off once and we’re not going to do something about it.”
Swalwell told Tapper that, following the first impeachment trial, Trump “is learning the wrong lessons. He’s acting now to corrupt the Department of Justice.”
Impeachment over Ukraine witness firing?
George Conway — a conservative, anti-Trump lawyer, and spouse of White House aide Kellyanne Conway — suggested Trump could be impeached again after his firings of Ukraine impeachment witnesses Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
“Trump is right,” the headline of a George Conway opinion piece in the Washington Post said. “We might have to impeach him again.”
Conway wrote the article after Trump mused “about the possibility he could become the first president to be impeached more than once.”
Conway explained his view this way: “If Richard M. Nixon was to be impeached for authorizing hush money for witnesses, and Trump himself was actually impeached for directing defiance of House subpoenas, then there should be no doubt that punishing witnesses for complying with subpoenas and giving truthful testimony about presidential misconduct should make for a high crime or misdemeanor as well.”
Can Congress legally impeach a president twice?
In short, yes: President Trump could be impeached again.
Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, told Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick in October that “there’s no rule that says you can only impeach a president once.”
Another expert agreed.
“There is nothing in the Constitution prohibiting another impeachment trial of Donald Trump,” said Sarah Burns, an impeachment expert at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Post reported. “They could even retry him for these charges if they so choose. For example, if John Bolton (Trump’s former national security adviser) or anyone else can prove that there was a threat to national security, the House could reopen the case.”
And George Conway echoed that idea on Twitter last year.
