Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley refuted a claim by House impeachment manager Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) in real time on Tuesday, after the Democrat tried to argue that Turley believed a former president could be impeached and tried.
Turley responded on Twitter:
Turley linked to his January article about the topic, in which he addressed questions about his past views. He argued that while such trials had value in the past, the increasingly loose way in which the House had used its impeachment power meant that trying former officials caused more problems than it solved, and was probably unconstitutional:
I still hold the same views on the history and value of such retroactive trials. However, I believe that the language and implications of such trials outweigh those benefits. Indeed, I have found over these decades that departures from the language of the Constitution have often produced greater dangers and costs. … It was historically allowed but I believe that it is not constitutionally sound. That view against retroactive impeachments is strengthened by what we have witnessed in the two Trump impeachments.
Turley later added in a new column: “”I felt Neguse did an excellent job in his argument but that statement is simply not true. His reliance on the Duke article is not misplaced. It is only his characterization of my position that was misleading.”
The first day of the trial was devoted to the constitutional question; both sides will continue to argue their cases for 16 hours each over the next several days.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.