President Donald Trump’s defense team is arguing that a president should not be convicted by the Senate on articles of impeachment that do not include a criminal violation, putting the very definition of an impeachable offense at the center of the Senate trial set to begin Tuesday.
And some legal experts said the outcome of that debate could set a new, higher standard for removing a president from office in future impeachments.
Trump’s memorandum released Monday, much of which reads more like a political argument than a legal or constitutional one, stresses that the two articles of impeachment “allege no crime or violation of law whatsoever — much less ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ as required by the Constitution.” Continue reading.