119-hres25

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 25 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
H. RES. 25

 Expunging the January 13, 2021, impeachment of President Donald John 
 Trump.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 January 9, 2025

Ms. Greene of Georgia (for herself, Mrs. Miller of Illinois, Mr. Weber 
 of Texas, Mr. Collins, Mr. Crane, Ms. Malliotakis, Mr. Moylan, Mr. 
Nehls, Mrs. Luna, and Mr. Van Drew) submitted the following resolution; 
 which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

 RESOLUTION

 Expunging the January 13, 2021, impeachment of President Donald John 
 Trump.

Whereas the Constitution provides that the House of Representatives ``shall have 
 the sole Power of Impeachment'' and that the President ``shall be 
 removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, 
 Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors'';
Whereas, on January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives passed H. Res. 24, 
 Agreeing to Article I of the Resolution Impeaching Donald John Trump, 
 President of the United States, for high Crimes and Misdemeanors, by a 
 vote of 232 Yeas, 197 Nays, and 4 Not Voting;
Whereas Article I of the Resolution, entitled ``Incitement of Insurrection'', 
 contains a subjective account of that which transpired at the Capitol on 
 January 6, 2021;
Whereas Article I of the Resolution omits any discussion of the circumstances, 
 unusual voting patterns, and voting anomalies of the 2020 Presidential 
 election itself;
Whereas prior to considering and voting on the Impeachment Resolution, 
 Democratic leadership in the House made no effort to understand the 
 rationale behind the widespread mistrust harbored by American voters in 
 the wake of the 2020 Presidential election;
Whereas President Trump won 18 of the 19 bellwether counties across the country 
 that have predicted the winner of every Presidential election since 
 1980;
Whereas President Trump received approximately 10,100,000 more votes than in the 
 2016 Presidential election, making President Trump the first incumbent 
 President in 132 years, since Grover Cleveland's failed bid for 
 reelection in 1888, to have increased his vote from his initial election 
 and seemingly still not won reelection in the subsequent cycle;
Whereas Secretaries of State and State boards of election across the country 
 changed State election laws sua sponte in the name of ``health and 
 safety'' in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas public officials in numerous States issued guidance to counties that 
 local election officials were precluded from performing on-the-spot 
 signature analysis, ensuring absentee ballots could not be rejected 
 because an election official believed the voter's signature on a ballot 
 envelope did not match the signature on file;
Whereas four Democratic lawmakers (Senators Warren, Klobuchar, Wyden, and 
 Representative Pocan), formerly enthusiastic proponents of voting 
 machine integrity, went so far as to send a 2019 letter to voting system 
 companies, providing real examples of voting machine problems (such as 
 switching votes, rejecting paper ballots, vulnerability to cyberattack) 
 yet, following the 2020 Presidential election, any individual who raised 
 the same concerns was dismissed by Democrats and pundits in the 
 mainstream media as spreading ``misinformation'' and as being nothing 
 more than a ``conspiracy theorist'';
Whereas recount efforts following the 2020 Presidential election were 
 vociferously opposed by Governors and Secretaries of State in key swing 
 States like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia;
Whereas public officials in key swing States ignored, and took great steps to 
 resist, calls for accountability and transparency in election 
 administration and the counting and recounting of ballots in their 
 respective States, further sowing the seed of doubt in the electorate as 
 to the legitimacy and fairness in the final result;
Whereas rather than setting forth facts and evidence supporting the need to 
 impeach a President a matter of days before he leaves office, Article I 
 of the Resolution cites two quotes from President Trump's January 6, 
 2021, speech on the Ellipse that lack any context, and are viewed in a 
 light most unfavorable to the President;
Whereas Article I of the Resolution grasps at the fact that President Trump 
 stated ``we won this election, and we won it by a landslide'', as well 
 as ``if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country 
 anymore'', as undeniable evidence that ``high Crimes and Misdemeanors'' 
 were committed, and that President Trump engaged in ``insurrection or 
 rebellion against the United States'';
Whereas Article I of the Resolution conveniently fails to mention the fact that 
 President Trump explicitly stated, ``I know that everyone here will soon 
 be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically 
 make your voices heard'';
Whereas the consideration of the Resolution by the House of Representatives 
 failed to follow any meaningful legislative process whatsoever;
Whereas not a single evidentiary hearing on the Resolution was held, no 
 witnesses were heard, and no process or opportunity to respond was 
 provided to President Trump;
Whereas no Members of Congress were provided an opportunity to review or amend 
 the Resolution before it came before the full House of Representatives 
 for consideration;
Whereas the Committee on Rules of the House of Representatives is the only 
 committee that published an official Committee Report for the 
 Resolution, that being the Report accompanying H. Res. 41, the rule 
 providing for floor consideration of the Resolution;
Whereas, while a ``Majority Staff Report'' was released by Democrats on the 
 House Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee did not issue an 
 official Committee Report, via regular order, for H. Res. 24, the 
 Resolution itself;
Whereas failing to issue a Committee Report for H. Res. 24 conveniently 
 precluded House Judiciary Committee Republicans a forum in which they 
 may have showcased their dissenting views on the Resolution;
Whereas to assert that a lone Committee Report accompanying a procedural rule 
 for floor consideration provided sufficient due process to the Trump 
 administration or the American people via their elected representatives, 
 and to assert that voting Yea on the Resolution was justified, runs 
 contrary to the Oath of Office taken by all Members of the House of 
 Representatives;
Whereas neither the Committee Report issued by the Committee on Rules of the 
 House of Representatives, nor the text of the Impeachment Resolution 
 itself, contain any mention of the text of 

section 3 of article I of the 
 Constitution, which provides that ``Judgment in Cases of Impeachment 
 shall not extend further than to removal from Office'';
Whereas a plain reading of the text of 

section 3 of article I of the 
 Constitution demonstrates that an official tried, and convicted, in the 
 Senate must first occupy the ``Office'' from which he is to be removed, 
 let alone forever be disqualified from ``hold[ing] any office . . . 
 under the United States'';
Whereas in frantically passing the Impeachment Resolution on January 13, 2021, 
 only 2 days after it was introduced in a frenzy of hysteria, House 
 Democrats, and 10 House Republicans, left the Senate only one week to 
 conduct a complete trial and convict President Trump before he left 
 office;
Whereas doing so left the Senate virtually no chance to comport with 

section 3 
 of article I of the Constitution;
Whereas unsurprisingly, 31 days passed before the Senate held a vote and failed 
 to convict President Trump, 23 days after he had left office; and
Whereas as further indication of the partisan political motivations behind the 
 Resolution, once the Article of Impeachment was passed by the House of 
 Representatives and transmitted to the Senate, the Chief Justice of the 
 Supreme Court refused to serve as the presiding officer for the trial, 
 as required by 

section 3 of article I of the Constitution, and instead 
 the Senate President pro tempore, Senator Pat Leahy, a Democrat from 
 Vermont, and a reliably partisan politician, served as the presiding 
 officer, perfecting the entirety of the process as nothing more than an 
 unconstitutional exercise in futility, moot, and fantastical political 
 theater: Now, therefore, be it
 Resolved, That the January 13, 2021, impeachment of President 
Donald John Trump is expunged, as if such article had never passed the 
full House of Representatives, as the facts and circumstances upon 
which such article was based met the burden of proving neither that 
President Trump committed ``high Crimes and Misdemeanors'', as set 
forth in 

section 4 of article II of the Constitution, nor that 
President Trump engaged in ``insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States'', such that he is forever precluded from ``hold[ing] any 
office . . . under the United States'' pursuant to 

section 3 of the 
14th Amendment to the Constitution.
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