I asked for neither your Opinion,
your Acceptance
nor your Permission.
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis." Dante Alighieri 3
"It took 2000 mules to install one Jackass." Diamond and Silk Watch the Movie
You're right to call me out on the Senate's final decision- I remembered that incorrectly. But the facts of the case still make it very clear that both the House and the Senate believed Blount could be impeached and tried even after leaving office:
1) The House's special committee determined that Blount was impeachable. They then recommended the Senate to expel him (he didn't resign) and then to compel him to show up for the Impeachment trial.
2) The Senate did both of those things in that order.
3) Blount requested extra time to prepare for the trial, and it was granted. (If they didn't think he could be tried, they wouldn't have given him time to prepare for trial)
Everything about the impeachment proceedings make it abundantly clear that neither the House nor the Senate believed he was immune to impeachment based solely on no longer holding office. The fact that the House expected him to show up to answer to the articles of impeachment after he had been expelled makes it clear that they didn't find these two things to be incompatible.
The fact that the Senate did exactly those things makes it clear that they also found nothing problematic about trying a former office holder.
So yes, I was wrong about him being having been convicted in the end. But it doesn't change the fact that both the House and Senate agreed to first turn an official into a former official and then to try him in the Senate.
Now they did ultimately decide he wasn't impeachable **during the trial**, but that was largely based on concerns about the "lower" House having the ability to force Senators out of the Senate.
The Senate still completely dismissed the impeachment, they said they couldn’t convict him because he was no longer a an officer of the Government. Your basis was 100% incorrect and I don’t know why you typed anything more than admitting you were wrong. When they voted to sequester his seat, it wasn’t because the lower house asked them to, it was because he refused to return to the Senate and was trying to flee.
Last edited by Gelston; 02-12-2021 at 08:28 AM.
I keep hearing Blount being trotted out as an example.. but it didn't end the way you believe it did. Might want to hit the google and actually read the link. Here.. I'll even provide it for you:
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory...mpeachment.htm