By Daniel Funke - Politifact
The House of Representatives approved on Wednesday a second
impeachment
process
against President Donald Trump for "deliberately inciting violence against the United States Government" with the assault on the Capitol on January 6, which temporarily prevented Congress from will count the electoral college ballots.
Within days of Joe Biden's inauguration as president, the decision to impeach Trump is unlikely to end in his impeachment.
However, a viral social media post misleadingly says that a second
impeachment
could automatically strip you of various benefits as a former president.
["Be careful what you wish for": Trump travels to the border and insists it is dangerous to put him on trial]
The Facebook post, made on January 9 by liberal page The Other 98%, and shared thousands of times, outlines four possible consequences for Trump:
You lose your $ 200,000 pension for the rest of your life.
You lose your allowance for trips of one million dollars a year.
Lose Secret Service protection for life.
You lose your ability to apply in 2024.
The post was flagged as part of Facebook's efforts to combat fake news and misinformation.
(Read more about the Politifact agreement with Facebook).
Celebrities like comedian Jim Gaffigan and advocacy organizations like the March for Science have shared this post with millions of followers.
A dubious source
The initial source for these posts is a January 8 tweet from Ben Costiloe, a 57-year-old man living in Texas.
Costiloe explained to PolitiFact that he copied the text from something he saw on Facebook.
[Trump lies about arresting immigrants with criminal records]
"I looked at it and they had no followers," Costiloe said, "I thought about it and said, 'Well, this isn't entirely true, but it could be true in a perfect world.' So I threw it there."
YouTube suspends Donald Trump's channel due to risk of violence in its publications
Jan. 13, 202100: 26
But Costiloe's viral tweet exploded like wildfire, painting a misleading picture of what could happen if Trump is indicted again.
The beginning of the
impeachment
process
by the House will not make Trump lose his benefits as former president: two-thirds of the Senate must still convict and remove him for that.
So you could also lose your ability to run for office after you leave the White House, but that would not automatically happen as a result of
impeachment
.
Most of the benefits granted to outgoing presidents were passed in 1958 as part of the Former Presidents Act (FPA).
Two benefits mentioned in Costiloe's tweet, an annual annuity of nearly $ 200,000 and a travel allowance of up to $ 1 million a year, are included in that law.
[More legislators test positive for COVID-19 after the assault on the Capitol]
Said regulations indicate that these benefits apply to presidents "whose service in office has been terminated for reasons other than removal, in accordance with section 4 of article II of the Constitution of the United States of America."
According to the Constitution, a president can be removed from office "for accusation and conviction of treason, bribery or other crimes and serious misdemeanors."
“Accusing him does nothing;
just convicting him [in the Senate] would, "said Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University." And under current law, convicting him only strips him of those benefits if the punishment is given while he's in office. " , Add.
They reinforce security in the Washington DC Capitol prior to Biden's inauguration
Jan. 13, 202102: 13
A 1962 law provides Secret Service protection to former presidents who require it "for a reasonable period after leaving office."
"The FPA provides some security and limited travel expenses to former presidents and their spouses, but only if they are not using the Secret Service protection provided in the other separate law," said Demian Brady, the Foundation's director of research. of the National Taxpayers Union.
[Was what happened on Capitol Hill sedition? We verify what happened and was said on the day of the assault]
Although the Ex-Presidents Act limits benefits such as Secret Service protection, this benefit would still be covered under those other laws, Brady said.
Congress could change the law
Congress could pass a new law to strip Trump of all his post-presidential benefits, and it wouldn't require the same two-thirds of the votes that are needed for a Senate conviction.
But the truth is that
impeachment
alone, even a second time, would not disqualify Trump from receiving the benefits.
Kalt said Trump could lose his ability to run for office again "even after he has left office" if the Senate decides to convict him.
The Senate has never convicted an accused president, much less a former president.
However, Michael J. Gerhardt, professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, recently wrote that, "If an impeachment begins when a person is in office, the process will surely continue after they resign or leave. go ".
"It is understandable that members of Congress and the American people lose their appetite to impeach a president once he has left office for good," he wrote, "but that is a political choice, not a constitutional directive." .
Mike Pence refuses to contribute to the impeachment of Donald Trump
Jan. 13, 202103: 57
If the Senate votes to convict Trump, the Constitution does not specify how many votes are required to disqualify him from holding public office.
In the past, the Senate has used a simple majority vote to prevent three people, all federal judges, from holding public office.
Our verdict
A viral social media post says a second
impeachment
will cause Trump to lose his life pension, travel allowance, Secret Service protection and his ability to run for public office.
That statement is far from accurate.
The Senate must convict him while he is president to revoke his lifetime pension and travel allowance.
And Trump's protection by the Secret Service would not be affected.
[It is absolutely false that Antifa stormed the Capitol: they were Trump followers]
After Trump leaves the White House, the Senate could bar him from holding public office.
Congress could also change the law to deny Trump his benefits.
But it also wouldn't happen simply as a result of
impeachment
.
The post contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts.
That is why we consider it to be
misleading
.
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