Late Impeachments
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2021
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jack Goldsmith sat down with Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University, to talk about an important issue in the news this week: late impeachments. In the current context, the issue of a late impeachment would arise if the House of Representatives impeaches President Trump before he leaves office but the Senate does not hold the trial for Trump, with possible conviction and disqualification from further office, until after he leaves office. They discussed how the Constitution and its historical background and structure inform this question, as well as what the practice of impeachments over 230 years teaches us. They also talked about how former President Trump might challenge any trial, conviction or disqualification that takes place after he leaves office.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | If impeachment is about deterrence, then it should deter a president for the entire term. |
| 0:41.7 | Rather than say, if you do something wrong, if you commit a high-crime or misdemeanor |
| 0:46.9 | and it's early enough in your term, then you're going to face consequences for it, including |
| 0:51.5 | disqualification. |
| 0:52.5 | But hey, if you wait until the end of the term, then you can do whatever you want and |
| 0:57.9 | we can't do anything about it. |
| 0:59.5 | That doesn't seem like the structure of the framers thought they were setting up and |
| 1:04.8 | that that's important going forward when we talked about impeachment maybe not happening |
| 1:10.1 | until the person is gone. |
| 1:11.6 | If when Bill Clinton on his last day pardon Mark Rich, if that had turned out to be a pardon |
| 1:17.0 | for a bribe, that might have been worth impeaching. |
| 1:20.1 | So we've got to keep that deterrent effect that is at the core of what impeachment is |
| 1:24.4 | all about going all the way to January 20th. |
| 1:29.0 | I'm Jack Goldsmith and this is the LawFair podcast, January 13th, 2021. |
| 1:35.9 | I sat down with Brian Colt, a law professor at Michigan State University to talk about |
| 1:40.8 | an important issue in the news this week, late impeachments. |
| 1:45.1 | In the current context, the issue of a late impeachment would arise if the House of Representatives |
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