Two House Republican lawmakers Thursday introduced resolutions that would expunge both impeachments the chamber made against former President Trump.
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Elise Stefanik of New York each authored a resolution that would expunge one of the two impeachments as if such Articles of Impeachment had never passed the full House of Representatives.
“It’s clear that President Trump’s impeachment was nothing more than a witch hunt that needs to be expunged from our history. I’m proud to work with Chairwoman Elise Stefanik on our joint resolutions to correct the record and clear President Trump’s good name,” Ms. Greene said.
Ms. Stefanik’s resolution aims at erasing Mr. Trump’s impeachment articles following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, which had charged him with “incitement of insurrection” and urging his supporters to break into the Capitol building.
The resolution states several issues surrounding the impeachment procedures of Mr. Trump. The New York lawmaker says this includes the subjective account of what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, a refusal to talk about election results, the “whimsical” changing of the legislative process for impeachment, and other issues.
The Democrat-controlled House impeached Mr. Trump on a 232-197 vote on Jan. 13, 2021, with 10 Republicans voting to impeach him.
Following his impeachment, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed a nine-member select committee to investigate the events of that day.
The panel, which primarily probed how Mr. Trump was responsible for the violence that day, consisted of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans picked by Mrs. Pelosi after she refused to accept Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s choices for the panel.
“The American people know Democrats weaponized the power of impeachment against President Donald Trump to advance their own extreme political agenda,” stated Ms. Stefanik. “From the beginning of this sham process, I stood up against Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff’s blatant attempt to shred the Constitution as House Democrats ignored the Constitution and failed to follow the legislative process.
Ms. Greene’s resolution expunges the Dec. 18, 2019, impeachment of Mr. Trump on the grounds that he was “wrongfully accused of misconduct” in the articles of impeachment, as demonstrated by the information recently revealed in an unclassified FBI document, known as an FD-1023, provided by a confidential human source.
“The first impeachment of President Trump was a politically motivated sham. The Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, weaponized a perfect phone call with Ukraine to interfere with the 2020 election,” Ms. Greene said.
“All of this information was revealed to Congress by the FD-1023 form from the FBI’s most credible informant. The form vindicates President Trump and exposes the crimes of the Biden family,” Ms. Greene said.
The House impeached Mr. Trump on Dec. 18, 2019, for abuse of power in conducting diplomacy with Ukraine and for obstruction of Congress in its investigation of his conduct.
The abuse of power article passed on a 230-197 vote and the obstruction article passed by 229-198. No Republican voted for either article and all but three and four Democrats, respectively, voted for them.
The impeachment happened after a formal House inquiry concluded he had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election to help his re-election and obstructed the inquiry by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony.
The inquiry reported that Mr. Trump withheld military aid to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to pressure Ukraine to announce an investigation into Trump’s primary political opponent Joe Biden.
Neither impeachment got the two-thirds margin needed to convict in the U.S. Senate, with the Ukraine charges failing to get even a majority on 52-48 and 53-47 votes (Mitt Romney of Utah voted to convict the abuse of power charge).
The Jan. 6 charge came closer, garnering a 57-43 majority and getting the support of seven Republicans.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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