(CNN | Oct. 31, 2019) Moments after the House passed a resolution establishing procedures for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, the White House condemned the vote.
In a statement, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that the resolution “fails to provide any due process whatsoever to the Administration,” calling it “unconstitutional.”
Trump echoed his administration’s complaints in an interview with British radio station LBC that aired soon after the vote. Referring to the resolution he said, “They gave us absolutely no rights” …
… William Banks, a law professor at Syracuse University, told CNN that “some will see the new procedures as providing due process, and there is no harm in that view. As such ‘due process’ is a synonym for ‘fairness.'”
“There is nothing in the Constitution or any law, nor any rules of the House, that prescribes a particular procedure for impeachment proceedings,” Banks added.
The Constitution notes only the basis for impeachment and that the House “shall have the sole power of impeachment” while the Senate “shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.”
“The House resolution is not in any way ‘unconstitutional,'” Banks said. “The resolution provides more than is required.”