Alejandro Mayorkas Senate Impeachment Trial That Wasn’t

I don’t have much more to add to what I argued two months ago, largely based on the book I wrote on impeachment a decade ago.

The contention that the two articles the House alleged against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas do not state impeachable offenses is wrong. To the extent some contend that the Framers thought about but chose not to make the impeachable-offense standard “maladministration,” opting instead for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” that proves too much. All abuses of power amount to maladministration at some level of generality. By not adopting “maladministration” as the standard, the Framers were trying to discount trivial maladministration, not read maladministration out of impeachment. That would be impossible. Mayorkas is accused of profound dereliction of duty; that is serious maladministration, which is exactly what the Framers were aiming at.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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I don’t have much more to add to what I argued two months ago, largely based on the book I wrote on impeachment a decade ago.

The contention that the two articles the House alleged against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas do not state impeachable offenses is wrong. To the extent some contend that the Framers thought about but chose not to make the impeachable-offense standard “maladministration,” opting instead for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” that proves too much. All abuses of power amount to maladministration at some level of generality. By not adopting “maladministration” as the standard, the Framers were trying to discount trivial maladministration, not read maladministration out of impeachment. That would be impossible. Mayorkas is accused of profound dereliction of duty; that is serious maladministration, which is exactly what the Framers were aiming at.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.