Sometimes there’s a question so simple that it doesn’t take a lot of work to get to the answer. As a retired lawyer no longer getting paid for my thoughts, I welcome these simple questions that let me skip all the weighty legal analysis, spit out the answer and get back to writing my novel.
The question here is whether a president can be tried on impeachment charges after his term has ended. The common sense on this one is so compelling that the answer must be yes. If it were otherwise then the man could just go shooting people on his way out the door, and he’d go unpunished, because there wouldn’t be time to try him.
We all know this can’t be right. The people who wrote our Constitution knew this couldn’t be right. Whatever constitutional grounds Donald Trump’s lawyers raise on this point, they have to fail.
Of course you can try a president after he’s left office. He doesn’t get a pass for the last two weeks.
Now I have to return to my writing. I’m stuck on a love triangle. Fun place to be stuck.
George Lynch
Quiogue
Mr. Lynch is treasurer of the Southampton Democratic Committee — Ed.
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