Great and Dangerous Offences

“With his characteristic dispassion, clarity, and his vast legal knowledge, Professor Bowman succinctly—and brilliantly—considers the wisdom of impeaching President Donald Trump a third time.  Dissecting such issues as recent Supreme Court decisions and the present, unfortunate devaluation of the impeachment process itself, Professor Bowman has written an essential and timely book to help the nation move forward toward establishing, once again, a more perfect union.”—Brenda Wineapple, author of The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation

“No one has thought more deeply—or written more insightfully—about impeachment’s role in our constitutional order than Frank Bowman. This book is essential reading.”—Kate Shaw, Professor, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and Co-host, Strict Scrutiny podcast

“Frank Bowman’s Great and Dangerous Offenses is an essential primer on impeachment, its history, and its purpose. It is also a warning about the risks of pursuing an impeachment of Donald Trump that the author regards as both justified and unwise. Sure to become a touchstone in the coming debates, this is a must-read regardless of where one stands on the controversy.”—Corey Brettschneider, author of The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It

“A timely examination of the Trump presidency by one of our most prominent scholars of the federal impeachment power. Demands careful attention.”—Keith E. Whittington, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, author of You Can’t Teach That! The Battle Over University Classrooms and Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present 

“Frank Bowman presents the most thorough case for impeaching President Trump a third time that readers are likely to encounter, grounded in the Framers’ vision of presidential impeachment as a safeguard against a kleptocratic autocracy. Yet Bowman also explains why impeaching Trump is probably unwise. An illuminating examination of impeachment’s design—and its limits—that deserves the attention of anyone who takes the Constitution seriously.”—Brian C. Kalt, Professor of Law, Michigan State University and author of Constitutional Cliffhangers: A Legal Guide for Presidents and Their Enemies

“Professor Bowman’s new book provides valuable insights concerning the wisdom and viability of presidential impeachment. One of our leading scholars in the field, Bowman lays out the precedents and importance of Congress’ impeachment power while helping the Members of Congress contemplate whether that awesome power should be deployed for a third time against President Trump.  The book is both timely and relevant.”—Perry Apelbaum, Former Staff Director and Chief Counsel House Judiciary Committee

“Great and Dangerous Offenses is a searing indictment of Donald Trump. But this is also a sober reflection on how America reached this point and whether impeachment is the best cure. Provocative scholarship at its best.”—Gerard Magliocca, author of The Heart of the Constitution: How the Bill of Rights Became the Bill of Rights 

“Why is the provision restrained to Treason & bribery only? Treason as defined in the Constitution will not reach many great and dangerous offences.”—George Mason on the broad scope of presidential crimes that should fall under impeachment.

Despite being twice impeached in his first term, Donald Trump has behaved even more outrageously in his return to the White House, violating the Constitution, federal law, and ancient behavioral norms almost daily. In Great and Dangerous Offences, Frank Bowman, one of America’s leading authorities on impeachment, considers whether in his second term President Trump has committed impeachable “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” and, if so, whether it is in the nation’s best interest for Congress to make a third try at impeaching and expelling him from office.

In this urgent book, Bowman discusses the many particular incidents of misconduct for which President Trump could properly be impeached, but contends that the most compelling ground for impeachment is Trump’s comprehensive and accelerating pattern of subverting the constitution and rule of law to establish an autocracy. Bowman concludes by considering whether a third Trump impeachment is a constitutional imperative or might instead prove a fatal distraction from the task of motivating the American electorate to vote for candidates committed to restoring the rule of law and constitutional order.

Frank O. Bowman III is a distinguished scholar of constitutional and criminal law and a former federal and state prosecutor. He has been writing about impeachment since 1998 when he submitted testimony in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Since then, he has written the definitive modern history of British and American impeachments, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump, and many articles on the subject in the scholarly and popular press. During the two impeachments of Donald Trump, his work was cited by members of Congress and counsel for the president more than that of any other single living author. He served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice for nearly ten years and as a Deputy District Attorney in Denver for four. He is now Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Law.