Seeing a lot of nonsense on Facebook about impeachment....

[lastlib]

(I know, it's Facebook--bear with me.....)

People are citing an article by Robert Reich that says tRump can't be pardoned now that he's been impeached. While I tremendously respect Robert Reich, this notion is wrong.

Article II, Sec. 2 of the Constitution gives the president the power to pardon offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. What this means is that an impeachment/conviction can NOT be erased by a presidential pardon. This is EXCLUSIVELY the province of Congress, with respect to "high crimes and misdemeanors". Essentially, the impeachment case and the criminal case are two separate things. An "impeachee" may still face criminal charges for the same acts for which he was impeached and removed, and may be pardoned by the president, thus removing the criminal penalties.

I just don't want this erroneous perception propagated.

[Karadeniz]

1. I'm missing something...these sound the same to me!

[DFW]

2. A subsequent president can pardon a convicted and removed president for crimes committed

That does not negate or reverse a Senate conviction in an impeachment trial, which, beyond removal from office, does not impose further penalties.

[louis-t]

3. He can be pardoned by future presidents

as Ford did for Nixon.

[CaptainTruth]

5. Nixon wasn't impeached.

[louis-t]

12. Nonetheless, Ford pardoned him for crimes

that he "might have" committed against the country. Pardoning is also believed to imply guilt.

[pnwmom]

13. Nonetheless, Nixon wasn't impeached. So the clause in the Constitution

wouldn't have applied to him.

[jberryhill]

4. Yeah

That weird notion has made the rounds a few times here.

[rzemanfl]

6. It's interesting language though. Is the reference to impeachment or to the underlying crime

or crimes that led to it? Impeachment is not a crime, it's a remedy, so what is there to pardon if the words are to be given meaning? Is what the framers meant that a pardon does not nullify the crime for impeachment purposes? For example, if Nixon had pardoned Agnew, Congress could still impeach him.

[lastlib]

9. Even though the language...

...is "except in cases of impeachment", the actual meaning, and intent of the Framers is "except in cases where impeachment is the remedy", i.e., high crimes and misdemeanors. These are exclusively the province of Congress, so the president can't pardon someone for "high crimes"--only for what are essentially statutory crimes subject to prosecution in courts.

[rzemanfl]

10. I think we are saying the same thing in different ways. n/t

[2naSalit]

7. I have never had

a FB acct. but with all the trolling going through that platform now, I now think of FB as troll central and consider anything sourced from that site as garbage.

[brush]

8. Everyone, close your facebook account. They allow lying, repug ads and...

Russian bots. They are what wikileaks was for trump in 2016.

[CottonBear]

11. Impeachment equals indictment. The senate trial is a separate process.

The impeachment phase/process/findings/articles are completely separate from the Senate trial phase of the process.