sniperct:

victoria-october:

sniperct:

queerhawkeyes:

the amount of misinformation (some of it purposeful) about impeachment floating around tumblr is ridiculous. here are some basic facts:

• impeachment begins with an inquiry from the house of representatives, which pelosi officially began on september 24th. this can take a while.
• the house can impeach trump with a simple majority. the vote on this takes place after the investigation. if a majority of representatives approve the articles of impeachment, it moves to the senate. since democrats have a majority in the house, this can happen without any republican support.
  
• being impeached by the house does not mean a president is removed from office–clinton was impeached but remained in office until the end of his term.
• mitch mcconnell could decide to just not hold a trial–like he decided the senate would not vote on merrick garland’s nomination, or the senate could acquit trump, like they did clinton. 
• the senate must have a supermajority (67 votes) to remove a president from office. this would mean 20 republicans, every democrat, and both independent senators would need to vote to convict trump. no president has ever been removed through this process.
  
• if the senate did determine trump was guilty, he would be removed from office, in which case pence would become president. removing trump does not automatically remove other people from office.
• you cannot prosecute a sitting president for a crime. trump would have to be impeached by the house and then removed from office by the senate in order to be prosecuted for anything. also, impeachable offenses are not necessarily crimes.

sources:

1. How Impeachment Works (CNN)
2. Impeachment (US Senate)
3. Trump Impeachment Hearing: Here’s How the Process Works (ABC)
4. Explainer: Impeaching a US President-How the Process Works (Reuters)

The constitution does not say that a sitting president cannot be indicted or prosecuted. It was a legal decision made during Watergate that has dubious merit and has never actually been tested. It would end up answered in the supreme court should an attempt be made.

True, but Trump has installed judges who agree with that belief, so it’s doubtful that the current court would help us out there.

I have to hold out hope roberts would be the swing vote(hes very concerned about the reputation of the court, reportedly hates kav, and had voted surprisingly to the left here and there), and I’m not actually 100% sure gorsuch would vote to help trump in this case as hes also voted against him a few times. Hes right wing but hes like…standard right wing lol

It’s a sad, vain hope but a hope nonetheless.