Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked former President Donald Trump’s lawyer D. John Sauer Thursday why his defense believes the “impeachment gateway” applies only to the president, and not to any other impeachable official.

Sauer has argued that impeachment and conviction is necessary as a precursor to criminal conviction.

In response to Coney Barrett’s question, Sauer said former Solicitor General Robert Bork explicitly determined that was the case in 1973.

“He said the sequence is mandatory only as to the president. That is DOJ’s view of the original understanding of the impeachment judgment clause, which is exactly our position,” Sauer said.

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