WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse told senators Tuesday that the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump was constitutional, arguing that a president "can't commit grave offenses in their final days and escape any congressional response."
"That's not how our Constitution works," added the Lafayette Democrat, one of nine House managers prosecuting the case against Trump for a single article of inciting an insurrection.
House Democrats introduced their case in Trump's historic second impeachment trial, arguing that there is no "January exception" to the constitutional power of impeachment — anticipating arguments advanced by Trump's lawyers.
Neguse cited earlier instances when federal officials faced impeachment and Senate trials after they left office, detailing a corruption case made against William Belknap, a secretary of war in the Grant administration, who was impeached, tried and acquitted after he stepped down.
"Unlike Belknap, as we know," Neguse said, "President Trump was not impeached for run-of-the-mill corruption or misconduct. He was impeached for inciting a violent insurrection — an insurrection where people died, in this building. An insurrection that desecrated our seat of government."
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