WASHINGTON — Former President Donald J. Trump left the White House on Wednesday, but he didn't quite ride off into the sunset. Not with a Senate impeachment trial still hanging over his head.
Even if an evenly split Senate does not convict him, Trump still faces legal peril, in the form of a little-known addendum to the constitution.
Article 3 of the 14th Amendment is something that the Senate could turn to as an alternative to keep Trump from running for president in 2024.
It says, "No person shall...hold any office...who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion."
Two weeks ago, the deadly pro-Trump mob attack at the Capitol unfolded moments after the president gave a fiery speech to thousands of supporters.
The House of Representatives, one week later, voted 221-197 to bring charges against Trump on the sole count of "incitement of insurrection."
"It could come back to haunt him," said Christopher Newport University Political Science Professor and Dean, Quentin Kidd. "The 14th Amendment, Section 3 says essentially that if you have engaged in insurrection and you've previously sworn an oath to the Constitution - which the President did - then you can't serve in any office ever again."
That would include the nation's highest executive office.
"The moment he filed paperwork in a state like Virginia for example, somebody would contest that, and say he's not eligible to run for President because the Senate and the Congress have essentially said they thought be engaged in insurrection, and insurrectionist behavior and the 14th Amendment says he can't run," Kidd explained.
Congress cannot declare an official outside of that body ineligible under Section 3 without the concurrence of the courts.
Congress can exercise its enforcement authority under the 14th Amendment to express its considered opinion that certain individuals are ineligible, with the hope that courts will accept that opinion.
The obscure Section 3 was ratified shortly after the Civil War. The section was designed to prevent current and former U.S. military officers, federal officers and state officials who served the Confederacy from serving again in public office.
University of Maryland constitutional law professor Mark Graber has written several articles on the 14th amendment.
He said, "The short version is, anyone who participates in an insurrection is ineligible for state or federal office. It's for Congress to determine whether there was an insurrection and whether somebody participated."
An impeachment conviction requires two-thirds of the Senate to vote for conviction. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment only requires a simple majority vote.
Seventeen Republicans would have to break rank, and join 50 Democrats, to convict Trump in a Senate trial.
There is still no word on when, exactly, the Senate trial could start, with Sens. Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell still working on the details.
ABC News reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to send the article of impeachment against Trump to the Senate "later this week."
The timing of formal transmission from the House to the Senate is significant, as the Constitution dictates that the trial begins at 1 p.m. the following day.
As for Trump, he did not mention the impeachment in his farewell speech at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday morning, saying only, "We will be back in some form."