Bolton’s lawyer: Trump’s impeachment trial is constitutional

A lawyer for the former national security adviser John boltonJohn Bolton Former Rep Will Hurd Announces Book Deal UPDATE: McEnany, Fox News Speaks On Pause John Bolton: Second Trump ‘Poorly Designed, Poorly Executed’ Impeachment Should Produce Same Result as First MORE argues that the Senate impeachment trial of former President TrumpDonald TrumpDominion Spokesman: Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, ‘Asks to Be Prosecuted’, DC officers who defended Capitol, Sicknick’s family honored in the US Super Bowl will join the Human Rights Council of UN: report READ MORE is firmly entrenched in the Constitution and should continue.

“The strongest argument against the Senate’s power to try a former officer rests on Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution,” lawyer Chuck Cooper wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

The quoted section of the Cooper Constitution dictates that the President, Vice President, and all civilian officers of the United States, “shall be removed from office upon indictment and conviction for treason, corruption or other crimes and misdemeanors. serious. “

“Opponents of the trial argue that because this provision requires revocation, and because only incumbent officers can be removed, it follows that only incumbent officers can be indicted and tried,” Cooper noted. . “But the provision goes against their interpretation. It simply establishes what is known in criminal law as a “mandatory minimum” sentence: if a post holder is convicted by a two-thirds vote of the Senate, he is removed from office under the law. “

After Trump was impeached by the House for the second time last month, the senator. Rand PaulRandal (Rand) Howard Paul Lawmakers blame Trump for riot as second impeachment trial looms Murphy: ‘I don’t think any of our work ends just because the president has left office’ ‘Congress plans to tighten eligibility for PLUS stimulus checks (R-Ky.) Moved a motion to dismiss a Senate trial, arguing the process is unconstitutional because Trump has already left office.

Five Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting against Paul’s failed measure.

“Since the Constitution allows the Senate to impose the penalty of permanent disqualification only on former office holders, it flies in the face of logic to suggest that the Senate is prohibited from trying and convicting former office holders. charge, “Cooper wrote in the Journal. “Senators who supported Mr. Paul’s motion should reconsider their point of view and judge the former president’s fault on the merits.”

Trump was impeached over an article inciting an insurgency against the government after a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol building on January 6 after speaking at a rally telling them to march on Congress and challenge the election result. The former president for weeks after the election peddled unproven allegations of electoral fraud and denounced an election he said had been “stolen” from him.

Several people, including members of the security forces, were injured or killed following the riots on January 6. Trump’s impeachment trial, his second, is set to begin this week.

Bolton, a frequent critic of Trump, wrote in the National Review late last month that Trump’s second indictment was unlikely to end in a conviction.

“Like the first, it’s too narrow (first the Ukraine, now the desecration of the Capitol) and has been rushed through the House on largely partisan lines,” Bolton wrote. “Neither of these two scenarios is the correct way to proceed with indictments, 50 percent of which in US history have occurred in the past twelve months.”