US Congress members introduce resolutions to expunge Trump impeachments News
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US Congress members introduce resolutions to expunge Trump impeachments

Members of the US House of Representatives introduced two resolutions on Friday, H.Res.547  and H.Res.538, that would expunge the impeachments of former President Donald Trump. Trump is the third US president to be impeached and the only president to be impeached twice. If passed, both resolutions would expunge Trump’s impeachments as if they had not occurred and remove any prohibitions on Trump holding US office.

Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York introduced H.Res.547 to expunge Trump’s second impeachment for incitement of insurrection against the US that stemmed from the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol. H.Res.538 was introduced by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to expunge Trump’s 2019 impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of justice. That charge originated from allegations Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine unless the country agreed to investigate Biden family interests in the country.

Representative Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York and lead counsel in the 2019 impeachment, dismissed the efforts as having no legal basis. He told reporters that the resolutions were “just a further continuation of the House Republicans acting as Donald Trump’s taxpayer funded lawyers.”

H.Res.547 states that the impeachment failed to include “any discussion of the circumstances, unusual voting patterns, and voting anomalies of the 2020 Presidential election.” Specifically cited are the allegations of rigged voting machines, fraudulent signatures on mail-in ballots and attempts to suppress vote recount transparency. Claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election have been debunked., including in Georgia where litigation over the election is ongoing.

Stefanik also accused House Democrats of rushing the impeachment trial. She asserts that the articles of impeachment were passed “only 2 days after it was introduced in a frenzy of hysteria.” The short timeline left the Senate with “only one week to conduct a complete trial,” before Trump left office. The Senate ultimately acquitted Trump.

H.Res.538 states that “Trump was wrongfully accused of the misconduct.” The reason given for the proposed expungement is “information revealed in an unclassified FD–1023 FBI document.” According to the Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, an FD-1023 is “raw, unverified reporting from confidential human sources,” and “they do not reflect the conclusions of investigators based on a fuller context or understanding.” Trump was again acquitted in the Senate on both abuse of power and obstruction charges.

These are not the first impeachment-related resolutions introduced to the House this year. Greene previously introduced a resolution to impeach President Joe Biden that charged Biden with failure to control the nation’s boarders, failure to prevent illegal migrants from spreading COVID-19 and creating a national security crisis.

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