President Donald Trump and several of his allies are discussing a congressional effort to expunge his two impeachments, a symbolic move that supporters say would correct what they view as partisan actions while critics argue cannot erase historical events.
According to people familiar with the discussions, lawmakers are considering introducing a resolution that would declare Trump’s 2019 and 2021 impeachments void.
The proposal would carry little legal effect because the Constitution provides no mechanism for reversing an impeachment once it has occurred.
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“It should be done because I did nothing wrong,” Trump said in a phone interview this week.
“It was a rigged deal—it was a whole rigged situation,” he added.
Trump later downplayed his own involvement in the initiative, saying, “If they want to do it, I’m honored by it.”
The effort is not expected to move forward until after the November election, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Even then, several Republican lawmakers have acknowledged that securing enough votes to pass such a resolution could prove difficult.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed he has discussed the proposal with Trump and other legal allies of the president.
Johnson said he has also spoken with Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz and conservative attorney Jay Sekulow, who represented Trump during his first impeachment proceedings.
“I think it makes a lot of sense the more the evidence comes out, the more we know they really were sham impeachments,” Johnson said.
“It is a priority and something that Congress should make right,” he added.
Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.
The first impeachment occurred in December 2019 after the Democratic-controlled House charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over allegations that he pressured Ukraine to investigate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.
The Senate later acquitted Trump on both articles.
In January 2021, just days before leaving office, the House impeached Trump again on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Senate again acquitted him after he had already left office.
The current proposal fits into a broader effort by Trump and his legal team to challenge various legal actions taken against him over the past several years.
His attorneys continue to seek reversal of his New York criminal conviction related to business records and have pursued appeals in several civil cases.
The concept of expunging the impeachments has circulated among Republicans for years.
In 2023, then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Elise Stefanik introduced similar resolutions that failed to advance.
Interest reportedly intensified after the Trump administration declassified materials related to the investigation surrounding Trump’s first impeachment.
Conservative journalist John Solomon and attorney Alan Dershowitz have argued that newly released information undermines key witnesses and could justify congressional action.
“I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be done,” Dershowitz said in comments later shared by Trump on social media.
Dershowitz has also acknowledged uncertainty about whether Congress possesses such authority.
“Nobody knows the answer,” he said.
Other legal scholars strongly disagree.
Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina, dismissed the proposal as legally baseless.
“It’s an absurd idea,” Gerhardt said. “It’s in the history books.”
“Historically, nobody thought that Congress had this power, because Congress doesn’t have this power,” he added.
Supporters argue that a resolution would serve as a formal statement that the impeachments were politically motivated and should not stand as part of Trump’s legacy.
Critics counter that impeachment votes are completed constitutional actions that cannot be undone through later congressional resolutions, The Wall Street Journal reported.
While any expungement measure would likely have no practical legal impact, it would reopen debate over two of the most contentious episodes of Trump’s presidency and could become another flashpoint in the ongoing political battle over his legacy.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
