Shorts: The Sordid History of Impeachment
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2020
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump is set to begin on Jan. 21, and the question of what constitutes an impeachable offense is sure to feature in the trial itself and in the broader discussion of the president’s conduct. To answer that question, many commentators, lawmakers and experts may rely on what the Founders said at the time the Impeachment Clause was written into the Constitution. But there’s another way to think about an impeachable offense: by looking at the offenses for which Congress has actually impeached people. Hilary Hurd explored that sordid and unexpected history of impeachment in a recent article for Lawfare. In the latest edition of the Lawfare Podcast Shorts, you can listen to that article in-full, read by the author.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | I'm Hillary Heard and this is the LawFair podcast. |
| 0:33.0 | The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump is head to begin in the Senate on Tuesday. |
| 0:38.0 | And there's been a lot of debate about what exactly counts as an impeachable offense. |
| 0:42.0 | So I dug into that for LawFair. |
| 0:44.0 | And without further ado, here is the sorted history of impeachment. |
| 0:49.0 | Read by me the author, Hillary Heard. |
| 0:52.0 | Tipsy on the bench, cursing at the God Almighty, |
| 0:55.0 | making intemperate speeches about Congress, sexual assault, tax evasion, |
| 0:59.0 | prostituting high office to his lust for private gain, |
| 1:03.0 | even staying on the bench when one states a siege from the Union. |
| 1:07.0 | A Netflix show? A dime store civil war novel? |
| 1:10.0 | No, it's actually the history of impeachment. |
| 1:14.0 | When experts write about impeachment, they tend to spend a lot of time on the founding. |
| 1:18.0 | What do the founders mean by the words high crimes and misnemeanors? |
| 1:21.0 | What is an impeachable offense? |
| 1:23.0 | Does impeachment require a criminal act? |
... |
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