AU Hosts Conversation with Former Impeachment Managers Reps. Raskin and Plaskett

April 27, 2021

Congressman Jamie Raskin
Congressman and Professor Emeritus Jamie Raskin

On Monday, April 26, Congressman and AUWCL Professor Emeritus Jamie Raskin and Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett ’94 joined the American University community for a conversation on insights from their experiences as impeachment managers in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump.

The event – co-sponsored by the Program on Law and Government, AUWCL Student Bar Association, AU College Democrats, and AU Kennedy Political Union – included a Q&A discussion with student leaders and questions from participants moderated by Distinguished Professor of Law Angela J. Davis.

Watch the conversation here

“It was a full circle moment when one of our former colleagues, Jamie Raskin, and former student, Stacey Plaskett, became the lead managers of Trump’s second impeachment hearing,” said Acting Dean Robert Dinerstein during his opening remarks. “Representatives Raskin and Plaskett presented an efficient, well-organized, and comprehensive case against the former president, and achieved what is now the most bipartisan vote for impeachment in our nation’s history.”

Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett '94
Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett '94

“This was the most serious and massive presidential crime against the union in American history,” Raskin said of moving forward with an article of impeachment. “Even if it were not to have any effect on Donald Trump in the short term, we absolutely needed to establish for the remaining future of our republic – let’s hope that’s indefinite and infinite – that the president cannot mobilize violence against the Congress of the United States during the counting of electoral college votes in order to overthrow presidential election results.”

When asked how a Senate impeachment trial can be used to convict a president in the court of public opinion despite an acquittal and the partisanship of media, Plaskett noted the importance of the trial putting facts into record.

“We recognize that not only are we speaking to the media, not only are we speaking to the American  people and the world, but we’re putting something in the record, as well,” she said. “There will a record of exact facts and evidence, of the persuasive and legal arguments, that were utilized by this brilliant [impeachment] team to not only convict in the public’s eye the president, but to persuade individuals about legal precedent moving forward…All of that information will always be there and will be utilized later on by scholars as well as potentially other politicians and political parties in what president should and should not do, and what authority to outcomes members of Congress have and do not have.” 

Raskin had introduced Plaskett on the Senate floor during day two of the impeachment trial, noting their shared connection to AUWCL.

“As lead manager, this is a moment of special pride for me because Rep. Plaskett is not only the first Delegate to be on a team of impeachment managers in American history, but she was also my law student at American University Washington College of Law,” Raskin said during his introduction. Learn more here.