George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley, a Democrat who was called by Republicans as a witness during the House impeachment proceedings, on Thursday wrote that President Donald Trump's claim he was not impeached is false.
His assertion comes from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to delay sending the two articles of impeachment to the Senate until the rules for the impeachment trial in the upper chamber are made clear.
"Trump's suggestion that he remains unimpeached appears based on a theory recently floated by Harvard Law School's Noah Feldman, in a commentary for Bloomberg headlined 'Trump Isn't Impeached Until the House Tells the Senate,'" Turley writes in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. "But while this theory may provide tweet-ready fodder for the president to defend himself and taunt his political adversaries, it's difficult to sustain on the text or history or logic of the Constitution."
Feldman wrote in Bloomberg last week the impeachment might not be legitimate because of Pelosi's move.
"If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn't actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say he wasn't truly impeached at all," Feldman wrote for Bloomberg.
But Turley said that did not matter.
"Congressional Democrats' current posture may be too cute by half, and is perhaps politically ill-advised, but any argument that they've entered a legal limbo by stalling the delivery of articles to the Senate falls flat," he said.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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