Yes, Some Republicans Tried to Expunge Trump's Impeachments — But It Failed and Likely Can't Work

It's true that some House Republicans pushed to expunge Donald Trump's two impeachments from the congressional record. Resolutions were introduced, debated, and brought to a vote. But calling this a viable "plan in the works" overstates what actually happened — and ignores what the Constitution says about it.

In July 2023, the House voted on both expungement resolutions. Both failed, as reported by NPR and The Washington Post. The votes split largely along party lines, but notably even some Republicans voted against them, citing concerns about constitutional validity and the precedent it would set.

More fundamentally, the effort was always on shaky legal ground. The Congressional Research Service — Congress's own nonpartisan research body — found there is no established constitutional or procedural mechanism to expunge a presidential impeachment. Impeachment is a constitutional process, and a later resolution simply cannot nullify it. PolitiFact confirmed that legal and constitutional scholars broadly agree on this point.

So even if the votes had passed, the impeachments would almost certainly still stand as a matter of constitutional law. Passing a resolution calling something expunged is not the same as it actually being expunged. The historical record, and the legal one, would remain intact.

This claim spread because it was partly real — there genuinely were votes — which gave it enough truth to travel. But the gap between "some lawmakers tried this" and "a real plan is underway" is significant. When you see political news framed around efforts that already failed or lack legal teeth, it's worth checking whether the story is about what happened or what someone wished would happen.