House Republicans are formally building the case to expunge both of President Trump's impeachments from the congressional record, and honestly, it's the most beautiful piece of political revenge since Trump himself walked back into the Oval Office. The same chamber that voted to impeach him — twice — is now preparing to vote like it never happened.
Two impeachments. Zero convictions. And now? Potentially zero record. Somebody check on Adam Schiff.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California introduced H.Res.1211, which calls for both impeachment actions — the 2019 and the 2021 versions — to be "expunged as if such Article had never passed the full House of Representatives." Over 20 Republican cosponsors have signed on, and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is backing it with everything he's got.
"Democrats weaponized impeachment against President Trump with politically motivated charges," Jordan said in a statement. "We applaud Chairman Issa for leading the fight to expunge this sham from the record."
Sham is right. Let's take a stroll down memory lane. The 2019 impeachment was built on an anonymous whistleblower complaint. Anonymous. The most consequential accusation against a sitting president, and we still don't officially know who made it. The 2021 impeachment moved from introduction to passage in two days. Two days. They spent more time debating the post office naming bill.
Issa laid out the case plainly, "The fact is that the Constitution doesn't spell out what to do when you've wrongfully indicted somebody." He added, "An impeachment is basically an indictment and it's an indictment that you can't really be acquitted from."
He's right. Trump was acquitted by the Senate both times, but the impeachment stain stays on the record unless someone does something about it. That's what H.Res.1211 is designed to fix.
And here's where it gets even better. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently declassified records that she said revealed a "coordinated effort" within the intelligence community to manufacture the conspiracy that was used as the basis for the first impeachment in 2019. So not only were the charges bogus — the receipts proving they were bogus are now public.
Issa didn't mince words about why this matters: "When you've been falsely accused, whether it's days, weeks, months or years later, somebody should be just as interested in printing that retraction on the front page as they were in putting the original charge on the front page."
Now, not every Republican is on board. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska called the effort a "vanity project" and warned it wouldn't be "well received." Classic. There's always one Republican who'd rather play nice with the people who tried to destroy their own party's president. Some things never change.
Legal scholars will tell you there's no constitutional mechanism to truly erase an impeachment. Fine. But there's also no constitutional mechanism that says you can't vote to declare the whole thing was a politically motivated fraud — because that's exactly what it was. The resolution has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee, and with Jordan running that committee, it's not going to collect dust.
Previous attempts to expunge the impeachments in 2022 and 2023 died without a vote. This time feels different. The cosponsors are stacking up, the declassified evidence is out, and the political will is there.
