Do I believe that Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses? Absolutely. Do I believe that the House of Representatives should impeach him? Absolutely not!

Impeachment is the equivalent of an indictment in a criminal court, which means the case would be sent to trial in front of a judge and jury. In a presidential impeachment, the judge and jury would be, respectively, a conservative Supreme Court chief justice and a Republican-controlled Senate. In the unlikely event that there was a guilty verdict, then the presidency would pass to Vice President Mike Pence, who on the surface is a diplomatic and civil-spoken individual but likely would still have the same extreme right-wing agenda.

Pence would have time to consolidate his right-wing followers and perhaps lull the Democrats into a false sense of complacency. After filling out Trump’s term, he would be eligible to run for two complete four-year terms.

What, I believe, is more likely, is that Trump would be judged not guilty and would proclaim he had been proven innocent and that the whole thing was nothing more than the Democrats being out to get him, as he has said previously. It would solidify his supporters and would likely garner a great many sympathy votes from independents (probably enough to carry him to a second term).

After he left office, if some agency attempted to haul him into court on criminal charges on the same issues that were cited in his Senate trial, I believe he could claim double jeopardy – and probably justifiably so.

Bill Holly

Kittery Point