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1. One of the benefits of impeachment as a process—months of hearings, assessing claims and weighing evidence—is that it helps separate scurrilous rumors and conspiracy theories from actual issues of concern.
2. Congressmen accused Andrew Johnson of a wide array of things, from selling pardons to Confederates through a lady of questionable reputation, to being part of the Lincoln assassination. They held hearings, and took testimony. And many of the charges failed to stand up.
3. Two sitting Vice Presidents of the United States actually asked the House to start impeachment investigations because they believed they’d been unfairly maligned, and saw a rule-bound process as the best way to air the evidence and clear their names.
4. Michael Cohen is denying a number of stories—that he went to Prague, that there’s an elevator tape, that the president has a love child. He’s also reiterating and expanding on other claims—that the president conspired to violate campaign finance laws, for example.
5. It’s both healthy and necessary for there to be a process of discernment and discovery—and this is where the Constitution stipulates that it should play out, not on cable-news panels. We’re already seeing the benefits of that process.
6. The bottom line? Impeachment is a process, not an outcome. It’s the path to the restoration of a rule-bound order, and to rebuilding healthy institutions. And today, we’re getting a hint of how that works. I wrote about its five benefits here: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
