Trump Impeachment Trial After Term Ends Is Backed by History (1)

Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial will be the first ever to extend beyond a president’s time in office, creating a novel legal question that ultimately could require Supreme Court resolution.

The answer isn’t settled but history has bad news for Trump: a sparse but consistent line of lower-level impeachments in the past suggests the Senate retains power to put him on trial even after his term ends. If it convicts him, the Senate could take a second vote to bar him from running for office again.

A number of legal scholars say the framers of the Constitution didn’t intend...