Obstruction of justice could still threaten Trump politically

The constitutional standard for impeachment is “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” but what the framers meant by “high crimes and misdemeanors” has been up for debate since George Washington’s presidency. “It’s not like James Madison wrote down a list of impeachable offenses on a cocktail napkin and we just lost the napkin,” said Joshua Matz, a constitutional lawyer and the co-author of “To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment.” According to Matz, impeachment is not a punishment for something the president did in the past — it’s intended to be deployed in situations in which his conduct poses substantial and ongoing risk to the country. However, he added that “what specific behavior falls into that category is an open question.”

In theory, this means that the standards for proving that a president committed obstruction of justice are different — and arguably lower — when it comes to impeachment, as opposed to a criminal case. And that’s because legislators thinking about impeachment can consider other factors — like potential harm to the country — that wouldn’t be relevant in a criminal context. But Clinton’s case shows that on a practical level, efforts to remove presidents can easily falter if they don’t have a convincing case for wrongdoing, which facts and analysis from a criminal investigation can bolster or undermine. And the political system imposes its own limits — like a Republican-controlled Senate that has shown little appetite for crossing Trump.