Impeachment trial

I don’t think double jeopardy would apply, but I’m sure Trump would argue that the action which should be taken against a president (at the time of the alleged offense) is impeachment, not criminal trial, so the criminal trial is not allowable.

people can be acquitted in a criminal trial and then face a civil trial for the same crime. isn’t this 2 entirely different types of court? i don’t think double jeopardy would be relevant.

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Not exactly. They cannot face a civil trial for the same crime. Civil courts don’t try crimes. They can face a civil trial for damages, for the same behavior that was found to be not against the law.

My feeling is that double jeopardy does not apply here primarily because while there were not enough votes to convict him, he was not acquitted. If the first trial had been a criminal trial, this would be a hung jury, and he could be retried.

I don’t think violating your oath of office is a criminal offense. It looks like several states are investigating him for state criminal activity, though. Like trying to interfere in the GA elections, or illegal real estate dealings in NY. I’m pretty sure he’s not seen his last trial.

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I’m going to assume any attempts to charge him criminally on a state or federal level will works its way to the Supreme Court based on trump’s lawyers’ presumed assertion that it’s unconstitutional to charge a president for crimes committed while president (true or not). And who is the Supreme Court going to side with?

supreme court judge is a lifetime appointment. i don’t know that they have a reason to be loyal to trump at all costs. seems like senators are because they fear losing their jobs. that’s not true of a supreme court judge.

they dismissed the case that got to them about election fraud, so in that case they didn’t side with trump.

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Supreme Court justices can be impeached and removed, but I agree with you. I’m not as optimistic though that they wouldn’t side with him regardless.

impeached over that doesn’t seem likely to me. nobody has real loyalty to trump. they all have loyalty to themselves. they aren’t going to impeach a judge for not siding with trump.

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I’m shocked that 7 voted to impeach.

It seems like civil war within the Republican Party. The primary season in 2022 will be interesting.

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That’s two more than I was expecting, so at least there’s that.

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The DOJ position is that it is impossible to charge a sitting president because as soon as you do, he becomes a defendant, which makes running a country difficult, and holding off on the trial would not allow him to prove his innocence. I don’t think there was anything in their argument about being charged for something he did while in office after he had left office.

But agree Trump’s lawyers would take it to the SC if it happened.

News programs are saying he was acquitted. Even if it was an acquittal, I don’t see double jeopardy applying.

I don’t think the supreme court will even hear an appeal as to whether he can be charged by a state court for a state crime.

They threw out his election fraud things. They let NY subpoena his tax returns (he’s going back to the SC with different grounds for not letting the state have them, but they already ruled against him once.) I’m not wild about those judges he picked, but they are all real judges. And of course most of the court predates him and owes him nothing.

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I would say “just shoot him and be done with it” but I can’t say that as it would be against the law so I won’t say anything like “put him done like a rabid dog” as that would be threatening violence which of course I am not doing.

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so depressing. hopefully he gets convicted of something in criminal court, otherwise any future president can do this and get away with it.

So one of my high school classmates made an idiotic post about the impeachment. And one of his friends made the following comment:

What happens on March 4? I know Hitler’s birthday is a thing with the neo-Nazis, but that’s in April, I thought.

Is there a significance to the date March 4?

Isn’t that the former inauguration date for presidents? ETA: Yes, it is, per Google

I must have some setting wrong – I get no audio from that. But also, I hate watching videos for that sort of thing. Can you possibly give a brief text summary?

Basically - something about going off the gold standard made all of the amendments after the 1870s illegal (so the real inaguration date is still the old one of March 4th). The last official president was Grant, and Trump will be put in as the 19th president.