A new House resolution led by Rep. Darrell Issa seeks to formally expunge both impeachments of President Donald Trump, arguing the proceedings were based on false claims and flawed procedures.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Rep. Darrell Issa has introduced a House resolution aimed at formally removing both impeachments of President Donald Trump from the congressional record, arguing the proceedings were driven by politically motivated accusations and procedural misconduct.
The proposal, first reported by Fox News, was referred to the House Judiciary Committee and calls for both impeachment actions approved by the House in 2019 and 2021 to be “expunged as if such Article had never passed the full House of Representatives.”
The measure, H.Res.1211, argues that the impeachment proceedings relied on unreliable evidence, denied Trump due process protections, and were conducted in violation of established House procedures.
Issa told Fox News Digital the Constitution does not clearly address how Congress should respond when an impeachment is later viewed as unjustified.
“The fact is that the Constitution doesn’t spell out what to do when you’ve wrongfully indicted somebody,” Issa said. “An impeachment is basically an indictment and it’s an indictment that you can’t really be acquitted from. If you are impeached by the House, famously where do you go to get your reputation back, is the question.”
“And that’s sort of a problem that we’re dealing with, which is that the president was wrongfully accused, the evidence is now out that there was withheld information and false information, but where do we go to unring this bell? And the answer is we go back to Congress and we go to the House floor and we have a vote.”
Issa said the effort is intended not only to reverse the impeachments symbolically, but also to publicly examine what he described as misconduct during the investigative process.
“More importantly,” Issa said, “is that he hopes his process will ‘make sure that the facts and the reality that there was misconduct in the process gets a hearing’ because that’s ‘really where this becomes a big deal is that we really have to make our case in front of Congress and in front of the American people.’”
The resolution claims the first impeachment in 2019 was built on politically biased information and references recently declassified intelligence materials that supporters say undermine the credibility of the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint initiated the inquiry.
According to the resolution, the whistleblower lacked firsthand knowledge and was aided by officials alleged to have political bias against Trump. It also argues House investigators mishandled evidence and denied Trump the opportunity to confront his accusers.
Earlier this year, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced the release of declassified records in a DNI press release that she said showed a “coordinated effort” within the intelligence community “to manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the basis to impeach President Trump in 2019.”
Issa also criticized the procedures surrounding the second impeachment in 2021, which followed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The resolution states the House advanced the impeachment article within two days and failed to conduct a full evidentiary review, relying instead on limited hearings without fact witnesses or extended investigation.
“They impeached him for essentially an insurrection, a true high crime, and it’s false,” Issa said.
The California Republican said prior attempts to expunge Trump’s impeachments in 2022 and 2023 failed to advance because they lacked what he described as stronger evidence of misconduct tied to the original proceedings.
Issa said the newly introduced resolution differs from earlier efforts because it focuses on alleged misconduct by those pursuing the impeachments rather than revisiting the accusations against Trump themselves.
Additionally, the effort has support from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
“Democrats weaponized impeachment against President Trump with politically motivated charges,” Jordan told Fox News Digital. “We applaud Chairman Issa for leading the fight to expunge this sham from the record.”
More than 20 House Republicans have signed on as cosponsors, including Reps. Claudia Tenney, Scott Fitzgerald, Russell Fry, Mark Alford, Tim Burchett, Tom McClintock, Harriet Hageman, Rich McCormick, Mary Miller, Glenn Grothman, Tim Walberg, Joe Wilson, Ronny Jackson, and others.
The resolution has renewed debate among constitutional scholars and lawmakers over whether the House possesses authority to retroactively nullify an impeachment after it has already been adopted.
Supporters argue the Constitution grants the House sole authority over impeachment proceedings and congressional records, while critics contend the chamber cannot erase the historical reality of impeachment once it has occurred, making the measure largely symbolic.
Issa said the effort is intended to publicly correct what he views as false accusations that continue to shape political narratives surrounding Trump.
“Our goal is to show that it’s false and it was maliciously false and, as a result, it should no longer stand as a legitimate accusation,” Issa said.
“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,” he added. “And that’s what we’re trying to achieve, is to have the legitimate retraction receive at least some semblance of the same attention as the false accusations did.”
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