Noah Feldman, Columnist

The Legal Strategy Behind Keeping Impeachment Simple

Why Democrats are focusing only on two compact articles of impeachment against Donald Trump.

December 10, 2019 at 3:30 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

One, two.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images

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The House Judiciary Committee has announced plans to consider two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Because Democrats control the Committee and the House, it is now very close to a foregone conclusion that Trump will be impeached.

It’s remarkable and historically significant that the committee will consider just two very focused articles of impeachment. Andrew Johnson’s impeachment featured 11 articles. Richard Nixon, who managed to resign after the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment but before the House adopted them, faced three. Bill Clinton was impeached with two articles — but they contained four and seven subparts respectively, corresponding to four alleged grand jury lies and seven alleged acts of obstruction of justice.