[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1131 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1131

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 18, 2022

    Mr. Mullin (for himself, Mr. Smith of Missouri, Mr. Duncan, Mr. 
 Jackson, Mr. Buck, Mr. Steube, Mrs. Harshbarger, Mr. Weber of Texas, 
  Mr. Rosendale, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, Mr. Gaetz, Mr. Clyde, Mr. 
 Kelly of Pennsylvania, Mr. Carey, Mr. Biggs, Mr. Hice of Georgia, Mr. 
 Mooney, Mr. DesJarlais, Mr. Bost, Mr. Palazzo, Mr. Rogers of Alabama, 
   Mr. Allen, Mr. Kelly of Mississippi, Mr. Gibbs, Ms. Stefanik, Mr. 
Johnson of Louisiana, Mr. Rutherford, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Mast, Mr. Guest, 
   and Mrs. Hartzler) 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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