By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Folks, we need to clear up a thing or three about the U.S. Senate trial that awaits us next week.

Donald Trump’s legal team is arguing that the trial is unconstitutional because a former president cannot be impeached. Hold on, ladies and gentlemen!

Donald Trump vacated the U.S. presidency on Jan. 20. The House of Representatives impeached him a week earlier, on Jan. 13. The impeachment occurred one week after Trump incited a riotous mob to storm Capitol Hill, seeking to prevent Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty to certify that President Biden won the 2020 election.

House Democrats Make Case for Convicting Trump (msn.com)

Do you see where I’m going with this? Talk of impeaching a “former president” misses the mark by a Texas mile. The House did not impeach someone who had already left office; Trump was still in office when the House delivered the “yes” vote on impeachment.

So, let us remove impeachment from the discussion. It was done legally and constitutionally.

What’s at stake is the Senate trial, which is a separate quasi-legal/political function.

What does the Constitution say about that? It says that the Senate has the sole authority to put a president on trial. A conviction can result in no punishment greater than removal from office, the document notes; that means, as I read it, that it can convict a former president and can establish in a separate vote whether that individual should be barred from seeking public office in the future.

Let us cease conflating impeachment with the trial. The first event has happened. The second one will commence soon.