In 2020, Trump’s DOJ issued a binding legal opinion that impeachment inquiries are invalid without an official vote of the House.
When you swing the hammer and hit yourself in the dick.
Does the DOJ’s opinion, binding or not, actually matter with respect to this though? Impeachment is solely the prerogative of the House, and more broadly Congress. I don’t see how the DOJ as part of the executive branch can thus bind the House at all in this.
(Also worth noting that Impeachment technically isn’t a legal matter – it is a political process.)
But typically, Justice Department internal opinions — though they have no binding legal weight in court — are controlling on subsequent administrations unless they’re revoked or superseded by new opinions.
If the House continues with an inquiry, and subpoenas people and records, the White House response will be that their inquiry per legal opinion is invalid and also to pound sand.
Trump wanted to force Pelosi to take a vote and had the DOJ write this opinion. You know what Pelosi did? She took a vote.
It’s just a majority vote and the GOPs outnumber House Democrats by 10 members. So, a very real chance that this impeachment will happen. Dems in the Senate have 2 members who are very GOP-friendly. Manchin and Sinema. So there is a small chance here for Biden to actually be removed from office.
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Oh, that’s right! Sorry forgot about that. Well, that’s at least good. Even if they don’t get a removal though, it still normalizes impeachment which is the GOP plan.
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They’re nearly the same thing, by pretending they’re going to impeach Biden they make it seem impeachments are no big deal and are boring procedural matters, providing cover to Trump by minimizing his. They don’t even need to bring it to a vote if they can get enough media coverage “investigating” the current McGuffin of the week.
The thing is that impeachment isn’t actually backed by the majority of the GOP. (Obv they might still vote in a partisan manner)
It’s just the freedom caucus people who are threatening removal of the speaker if he doesn’t entertain their evidence-less delusions.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4198517-senate-gop-says-house-lacks-evidence-for-impeachment/
This is about starting an inquiry. The Republicans don’t have the votes to start. Plenty of Republicans will not vote for an inquiry. McCarthy tried starting without a vote today.
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Maybe the DOJ can have a memo that suggests impeaching a sitting president requires an actual reason.
