House Republicans considering a measure to erase former President Donald Trump’s impeachments must first rewrite the playbook.
Impeachment expungement has never been attempted, and some legal experts say it’s not allowed under the terms of the Constitution. That puts the Republicans firmly in uncharted territory.
“We’ve never had this before,” said Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who specializes in impeachment. “The House has never done this before. Congress has never done this before.”
The Democratic-led House impeached Mr. Trump twice: once in 2019 over questions about his dealings with Ukraine and again in 2021, after he left office, over his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Both times, the Senate fell short of the two-thirds vote to convict him. Most Republicans called the attempts political hit jobs.
With the House now under Republican control, some party lawmakers hope to erase the impeachments from the books.
“He deserves to have that off his record as one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had,” said Rep. Max Miller, Ohio Republican. “And we have to be pragmatic in our approach and assess what is going to do the greatest amount of good for the American people.”
Republicans introduced expungement resolutions in June. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has signaled that he supports the idea but has not scheduled floor action.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who led the first impeachment against Mr. Trump, called expungement “an absurd proposition” because the Constitution has no mechanism to reverse an impeachment.
He doubted that would derail Republicans.
“Just because it’s absurd doesn’t mean they won’t go through with it,” Mr. Schiff said. “The Republican leadership has shown a great fondness for absurdity.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who led the second impeachment against Mr. Trump, agreed.
“We should start with the text of the Constitution,” Mr. Raskin said. “There is no procedure for expunging an impeachment. So that doesn’t exist.”
Rep. Ryan Zinke, Montana Republican, wasn’t sure what expunging an impeachment would mean but said Mr. Trump was wronged.
“There’s only one Donald J. Trump,” said Mr. Zinke, who served as interior secretary in the Trump administration. “And anything with Donald J. Trump is always handled out of the ordinary.”
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York introduced the resolution to expunge the 2021 impeachment. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, sponsored the resolution to nullify the 2019 impeachment.
Ms. Greene said revelations since 2019 have vindicated Mr. Trump’s actions toward Ukraine while implicating President Biden and his son Hunter. According to an unverified FBI informant, Hunter Biden was using his father as a tool to extract business deals from Ukrainian and Chinese firms.
Mr. Gerhardt, one of the experts called to testify while the House was pursuing Mr. Trump’s first impeachment, said expungement “probably means nothing.”
“In my opinion, there is no power to expunge an impeachment; and therefore, it’s rather, at least in my opinion, a pointless exercise,” Mr. Gerhardt said.
Only 20 people, including three presidents, have been impeached.
None of the impeachments has been expunged.
President Jackson, a Democrat, was censured by the Whig-controlled Senate in 1834. Three years later, when the Democrats controlled the Senate, they voted to expunge the censure.
Mr. Gerhardt said the expungement essentially “ripped those pages out of the Congressional Record.”
The censure of a president was a dubious move in the first place. It had no constitutional foundation and raised significant questions about the separation of powers.
Impeachment is written into the Constitution with procedures that are well trodden. The process also leaves an extensive record of a House investigation, a Senate trial and the votes that accompany an impeachment. In Mr. Trump’s cases, those won’t be erased from the Congressional Record, the internet or American voters’ minds.
Mr. Gerhardt said Republicans’ quest to expunge Mr. Trump’s impeachments could set a dangerous precedent, especially while House leadership has warmed to an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
“If this House impeaches Joe Biden, you just opened the door to expunging that next time Democrats take control,” Mr. Gerhardt said.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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