Impeach Now, Convict at Leisure

 The Democrats in the house are planning to impeach Trump this week. I think they are right to do so. I hope the Republicans go along. His  actions last Wednesday probably were not legally a felonious  incitement to riot, but they were an  impeachable attempt to use a mob to pressure the congress to overturn an election he lost. Even apart from that,  his ordering Pence to discard the results of the election and keep him in power illegally should be enough to justify impeachment and conviction.

The senate is not in session and will not be taking up any business until after the inauguration. That would mean Trump’s trial would be after he was out of office.  Some people have objected that a trial then would interfere with the senate’s business of confirming Biden’s appointments and slow an already delayed transition.  Representative Clyburn has suggested holding off on sending the articles of impeachment to the senate for a few months to avoid that, and that seems reasonable.  The purpose of the trial would not be to remove Trump from office, since he would already be gone, but to allow the senate to vote after convicting him to ban him from seeking office again.  

Others have argued that Trump needs to be tried after breakfast and convicted before lunch one day this week to keep him from doing something worse in the next few days. Such worries may have sounded paranoid three months ago, but they are worth considering now. However any really bad actions would require the cooperation of the armed forces or one or more of the armed civilian agencies, and I think people can be confident that will not happen.  He probably will issue a bunch of improper pardons, but that would  not be really significant with one exception.  If he includes  one for himself,  it should be a good case for the Supreme Court to declare self-pardons unconstitutional.