President Donald Trump and his allies are working to have Congress pass a resolution expunging his two first-term impeachments, despite it being a largely symbolic move with no legal force.

A White House official told the Wall Street Journal that Trump and his team want lawmakers to pass a resolution aimed at voiding the impeachments, and that White House officials have strongly urged progress on the effort. The Journal reported the resolution would let Trump claim a symbolic victory on a matter that has dogged him since his first term, as part of a broader effort to burnish his legacy, but would carry little legal significance because the Constitution provides no procedure for undoing an impeachment. Trump was acquitted by the Senate in both cases.

Trump made no secret of his motivation. “It should be done because I did nothing wrong,” he told the Journal by phone, calling the impeachments a rigged effort.

The legislative vehicle is already in place. Rep. Darrell Issa’s H.Res. 1211 would expunge both impeachments as if the articles had never passed the House, and it has carried the backing of Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and more than 20 cosponsors since April. Speaker Mike Johnson is open to the move. The new element in the Journal’s reporting is that Trump himself is now driving it, along with the timeline attached.

That timeline is politically delicate. Several Republican lawmakers told the Journal the resolution would not be taken up until after the November elections, and cautioned that securing the votes could prove difficult. The effort is planned for after midterms in which Republicans are widely expected to lose their House majority, pointing to a possible lame-duck vote by members who will no longer face voters.

Even if it passes, the practical effect would be nil. By the House parliamentarian’s own guidance, the vote would alter nothing in the record it claims to erase, and a future Democratic House could simply pass a counter-resolution that would likewise change nothing.

For Republicans, the bigger risk is political, since the resolution would force them to relitigate Trump’s conduct tied to his 2019 and 2021 impeachments just as they head into a tough campaign.

Trump holds a singular place in this history. He became the only president ever impeached twice. The first impeachment, in 2019, alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his bid to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless it investigated Joe Biden, and ended in acquittal in early 2020. The second, in 2021, charged him with incitement of insurrection over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters, and also ended in acquittal. His grievances over both helped power the 2024 campaign in which he defeated Democrat Kamala Harris.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)