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One of the clear principles of criminal justice is trial by an unbiased jury of peers.
The procedure for impeaching a US president is a purely political procedure, masquerading as a legal one.
It should be split into two mechanisms: one a method by which a sufficient majority of the Senate and Congress can remove a president from power, recognised as a political act, and the other a method by which a president who is found to have violated the law of the land can be prosecuted legally, the same as any other citizen.
The concept of "high crimes" is a dangerous one, I think - it conflates "bad things" with "illegal things". Punishing the former should be a purely political act with no pretence that it is anything other than "we disagree with you and want to stop you"; punishing the latter a purely legal act enforced by the letter of law (which needs to be written specifically enough as to avoid ambiguity, rather than couched in high-minded generalities like the constitution) enforced without reference to the values of the people enforcing it.
Allowing politicians to conduct a "criminal prosecution" is farcical.
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