Senator Graham Warns Against Using Impeachment Power To 'Vindicate Political Grievances'

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has sent a letter to Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer stressing that the process of impeaching incumbent US President Donald Trump is unconstitutional.

"Both the plain text and the evident purpose of Congress' constitutional impeachment power make manifestly clear that the Congress is without the constitutional power to impeach a president, once he has left office," Graham said in his Sunday letter. "The impeachment power exists to protect the Nation from the harm that an incumbent president might inflict upon the Nation were he to remain in office, not to vindicate political grievances after a president has left office," the senator continued.

Graham said that proceeding with the impeachment trial would be both unconstitutional and unwise.

"The Senate should vote to dismiss the article of impeachment once it is received in the Senate. We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great Nation if we do otherwise.

Our obligation to the People we represent is clear. History will judge us harshly, as it should, if we do not rise to the occasion of this historic moment in our history," Graham wrote.

Prominent lawyer and international law specialist Toby Cadman told Sputnik that Trump looks set to become the first US commander-in-chief to be impeached twice but his removal from the post is unlikely before the inauguration of Joe Biden.

With just a few days left in office, Cadman believes the rush to impose retribution on the outgoing president is intended to strip him of post-presidential privileges and the right to run for office again.

On January 6, pro-Trump protesters stormed Capitol Hill in a bid to prevent Congress from certifying the presidential election victory. The US House of Representatives impeached Trump earlier this month over what it considered incitement of insurrection.