The March 5 front-page article “Democrats launch wide Trump probe” said that “Judiciary Committee staff argue that there is a constitutional question about whether the party can hold Trump accountable for any illicit or morally questionable activities he may have committed before he became president.” There is clear precedent that a federal official can be impeached and removed from office for conduct engaged in prior to assuming federal office.
On Dec. 8, 2010, Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana was convicted in the Senate on four articles of impeachment and removed from office. The fourth article charged that Mr. Porteous had received kickbacks and bribes as a state judge, which he had failed to disclose to the Senate during his 1994 confirmation process. The vote for conviction on that article in the Senate was overwhelming: 90 to 6. It was a seismic shift in impeachment jurisprudence. The standard for what constitutes impeachable conduct applies to all federal officials within its purview. The Constitution does not distinguish between the president and other federal officials with regard to impeachment.
Alan I. Baron, Washington
The writer has served as special impeachment counsel to the House on four occasions, including the impeachment and trial of G. Thomas Porteous Jr.
