Trump’s legal team, when arguing the opposite, repeatedly cites scholar who says there is a ‘solid basis’ for post-presidential impeachments
Donald Trump’s defense team was accused of flagrantly misrepresenting the work of a constitutional scholar when asserting that the former president’s impeachment is unconstitutional.
Attorneys representing Trump filed a legal brief on Monday arguing that the U.S. Constitution only allows for the impeachment of sitting officials and therefore cannot be utilized against a president who has already left office. Similar to the House Impeachment Managers’ pre-trial filing, the brief relied heavily on a highly-regarded 2001 academic article on late impeachments by Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt. Unfortunately for Trump’s attorneys, Kalt—who is widely viewed as the leading expert in constitutional law dealing with the presidency, presidential pardons, impeachment, succession, and the 25th Amendment—immediately responded to the memo by saying it repeatedly distorted and misrepresented his work.
“Trump’s brief cites my 2001 article on late impeachment a lot,” Kalt wrote in a four-part Twitter thread. “The article favored late impeachability, but it set out all the evidence I found on both sides–lots for them to use. But in several places, they misrepresent what I wrote quite badly.” [Continue reading…]