Editor’s Note: Jerry Goldfeder’s ‘Impeachment Sidebar’ will address various salient legal issues relating to the impeachment process during the next several months. This is the first installment.
In mid-2017, I wrote on these pages that the “extraordinary” constitutional prerogative of impeachment should be approached warily (Remove the President? Read This First, NYLJ, May 18, 2017). I urged those conducting inquiries relating to the president’s conduct to emulate Sergeant Friday of TV’s Dragnet fame by searching for “the facts, and just the facts.” Of course, it was easy for Sgt. Friday to get the truth, even in the face of liars or dissemblers, because radio and TV audiences 40 years ago demanded that crime shows be wrapped up in a half-hour.
