A professor at StFX says US President Donald Trump won’t necessarily be removed from office, even if his impeachment inquiry finds enough evidence for an impeachment vote.
The inquiry’s public phase got underway Wednesday.
Don Abelson, the director of StFX’s Brian Mulroney Institute of Government, tells The Hawk it’s not the end of it, even if House members vote to impeach.
“Being impeached is very different than being removed from office,” he says. “A lot of people think ‘Oh my goodness, if President Trump is impeached, is he finally gone?’ No, he’s not gone.”
Abelson says if the Democrat-led House of Representatives’ inquiry gathers enough evidence to support an impeachment vote, members of the Republican-controlled Senate would convene as a criminal court overseen by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
He says each senator would serve as a juror in those proceedings, and the majority would have to remove the Trump from office.
Abelson says that means at least some Republicans would need vote with Democrats.
“It is highly, highly unlikely that they would cross party lines and support the Democrats,” he says. “If that doesn’t happen, it’ll be virtually impossible to remove Donald Trump from office.”
Trump says some US presidents have been impeached, but none have ever actually been removed from office.
