Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi signed the articles of impeachment on Jan. 15 against President Donald Trump with multiple pens, handing them out as souvenirs for her fellow House Representatives.
Thus began the strange saga of an already strange process: the impeachment of a United
States President.
But now, at the tail end of the process, how strange was it really?
The answer is: not very.
There have only been three instances when a U.S. president has been impeached, making the process unusual in itself.
The three lucky members of the impeachment club are Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and of course, Donald Trump.
Former President Richard Nixon’s famous Watergate scandal doesn’t count, because he resigned before his impeachment trial could even be issued.
Signing the articles with a rumored $15,000 worth of pens and having a weirdly solemn procession still doesn’t make Trump’s impeachment too strange.
For instance, the commemorative pen thing is common practice in the signing of historic bills and was done during the impeachment of
Bill Clinton.
The notion that the pens add up to be worth $15,000 would be eyebrow-raising, but according to Snopes, the price of the pens were inflated by Facebook rumors and were actually $15 a pen, adding up
to $450.
As for the almost-ritualistic walk of the House impeachment managers to the Senate, that has been done for every presidential impeachment.
The most unusual thing about the signing and transmitting of the articles of impeachment was the timing.
After the House voted to impeach Trump, Pelosi delayed the delivery of the articles of impeachment, seemingly changing nothing but the start date of the impeachment trial.
What about the number of articles of impeachment?
Trump’s is also pretty pedestrian in that regard.
He has two articles of impeachment against him, as did Clinton.
Nixon had three heading for him, rendered moot by
his resignation.
Andrew Johnson takes the cake, with 11 articles of impeachment levied against him.
Of course, being such an uncommon practice, every presidential impeachment has unique details.
And President Trump’s impeachment has a doozy of a unique detail.
It is the only impeachment trial not to call witnesses.
Other presidential trials had witnesses, with Bill Clinton having three and Andrew Johnson having a whopping 41.
A lack of witnesses is strange, not only for presidential impeachments, but for any senate impeachment hearing, according to Politifact.
This is a fairly big deal, because what kind of trial doesn’t have witnesses and a jury (in this case the Senate) with a majority vested interest in seeing the accused exonerated?
Some would say, not any kind of trial at all.
In any case, the impeachment of Trump will most likely be ho-hum in the most important way.
As with Clinton and Johnson, it will most likely result in an acquittal.
