Summary
President Donald Trump, impeached twice during his first term, may consider trying to remove the record of his 2019 impeachment after new documents were released. These documents suggest a potential bias in the impeachment process involving former Inspector General Michael Atkinson. Legal experts, however, say there's no clear process to expunge an impeachment.
Key Facts
- President Trump was impeached in 2019 and acquitted by the Senate in 2020.
- Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz believes Trump may have grounds to seek an expungement of his 2019 impeachment.
- Newly declassified documents suggest Michael Atkinson relied on potentially biased narratives in the impeachment process.
- The U.S. Constitution does not specify a way to expunge an impeachment, and no historical precedent exists.
- Some Republican lawmakers have tried to introduce measures to remove Trump's impeachments, but these efforts have not succeeded.
- Legal experts argue that once an impeachment happens, it cannot be undone because it involves the Senate trial process.
