In February of 2021, Joe Biden had been president for less than a month.

The United States Senate was still in the middle of impeaching the previous president for

stoking insurrection.

The House impeachment managers, all of them Democrats,

were making the case that even though Trump was no longer president, he had to be impeached

because otherwise future presidents would be free to commit any crime or misdemeanor

as long as they did so right before leaving office. To rebut that,

Trump's lawyers offered this counter argument.

If my colleagues on this side of the chamber

actually think that President Trump committed a criminal offense.

And let's understand a high crime is a felony and a misdemeanor is a misdemeanor.

The words haven't changed that much over the time. After he's out of office, you're going to arrest him.

So there is no opportunity where the President of the United States can run rampant in January at the end of his term and just go away Scott free

The Department of Justice does know what to do with such people

After he is out of office, you go out and arrest him.

The Justice Department knows what to do.

That's from Trump's lawyers.

In other words, there was no need to impeach a president

after he left office because the Justice Department

would bring criminal charges against him.

And that logic was apparently so convincing for Republicans that the number one

Republican senator Mitch McConnell cited that very argument in his speech

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