Post
by bmw » Sat Dec 21, 2019 10:10 am
My take on this is that there is no clear answer to the technical question of whether Trump has actually been impeached. There's nothing in the Constitution regarding the specific timeframe between the House's impeachment vote and the beginning of the Senate trial.
On one hand, I could compare this to criminal procedure. If a warrant for my arrest is issued, but the police knowingly and intentionally choose to not actually execute that warrant, have I been arrested? Of course not. It isn't the mere issuance of that warrant that gives me the legal status of having been arrested; rather, it is the action of a specific police officer telling me "you're under arrest." In Trump's case, the articles have been "issued" so-to-speak, but they haven't actually been executed until they've been transmitted to the Senate.
On the other hand, I also have a hard time buying the idea that the actual impeachment status rests solely in the hands of the Speaker of the House, even after a full House vote has already been taken.
In the end, it is Nancy Pelosi who is giving Trump a possible loophole. And to what end? She already knows for a fact that Trump will prevail in a Senate trial, and she had to know that right from day 1. But I also don't think she went into this pre-planning ahead so far as her game plan from day 1 being to vote to impeachment but to never transmit the articles to the Senate. If I had to make a prediction, it would be that she will eventually transmit these articles to the Senate, but perhaps a little closer to the election. She is, however, playing with political fire.
