Impeachment

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, I would like to submit this statement for the record regarding the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. The statement reflects my thoughts on this complicated constitutional matter and its implications for future impeachments.

In 1787, the Articles of Confederation were failing, and our young Nation was struggling to address the many challenges it was being confronted with in its infancy. A collection of independent States, the newly formed country experienced much difficulty with the regulation of trade and commerce, foreign affairs, and other basic domestic civil issues. With calls for disunion multiplying, delegates to the Constitutional Convention met to deliberate and forge a new government and with it an Executive to help centralize the powers necessary to form a strong republic. Having just shed the bonds of the British Monarchy and its infringements upon the liberties the delegates so desperately wanted to protect, there was much skepticism toward this idea. In order to abate these concerns, the Constitution's Framers provided for a means of removing an Executive, a Presidential impeachment.

After much debate over particular wording, article II, section 4 of the Constitution adopted by the delegates reads: ``The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.''

This is the fundamental impeachment provision contained in the Constitution and provides the primary evidence as to why the lone Article passed out of the House as well as the subsequent trial in the Senate, was unconstitutional. As this section shows, impeachment refers to ``the President'' and other officials, and it provides that that they shall be ``removed from Office.'' Donald J. Trump is no longer the President of the United States and therefore can no longer be removed from office. He is a private citizen.

Further evidence that Donald Trump is no longer the President and therefore that this trial is unconstitutional can be found within the Senate's impeachment authority: Article 1, section 3 provides that ``When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside.'' Chief Justice John Roberts did not preside over the impeachment trial, and instead that role was filled by the senior Senator from Vermont, Patrick Leahy. In a statement, Senator Leahy himself stated that the President pro tempore of the Senate ``has historically presided over Senate impeachment trials of non- presidents.'' These facts demonstrate that Chief Justice Roberts declined to preside over the trial because he did not believe that he had a constitutional role and that Senator Leahy acknowledged that Donald Trump was no longer an officeholder. Finally, article 1, section 3 provides, ``Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor.'' This reiterates that removal from office must occur before that person is disqualified from holding an office again. If the Founders had intended that disqualification be a separate judgment, then the Constitution would have clearly stated ``or'' rather than ``and.'' The Constitution does not give the Senate the authority to try a private citizen or to remove him from an office that he no longer occupies.

It also does not give the Senate the authority to disqualify him from an office that he was not removed from.

I voted to acquit former President Donald Trump of the charge of inciting an insurrection for the January 6 Capitol riot because of these basic concerns surrounding the constitutionality of the proceeding. The impeachment of a private citizen, driven by political obsession, sets a very dangerous precedent. What would prevent a Republican-controlled Congress from impeaching former President Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton? What about historical Presidents such as George Washington, whose pivotal legacy no longer appears to meet the moral standards of contemporary times? While the political retaliation against the President is certain to continue now that he is out of office, I am proud to have been a part of the minority in the Senate to stand up to this type of unconstitutional behavior and to acquit Donald Trump.

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