Quote:And I'm genuinely curious about the impeachment process in general, not specifically Bush (like, what if Ford had done a Heel Face Turn and not pardoned Nixon when he resigned? What would the next step have been?)
Well, when it comes to an impeachment the broad strokes are pretty simple. If Nixon had decided to try and ride it out, impeachment proceedings would have begun in the House, moved to the Senate for the trial and from there it was reasonably certain he'd be convicted. Now, an impeach & convict doesn't automatically mean he goes to jail, just that he'd be booted out of office immediately on conviction and (probably) be barred from running for public office ever again. Impeachment doesn't count as double jeopardy under the Consitution, so had Nixon been impeached he would've still been potentially criminally liable. At that point it's procedurally just another felony case with all the attendant ups and downs.
In *that* situation, Ford could still have pardoned Nixon (the crimes, not the impeachment), though if things had gotten that far he'd have been burned out of the White House if he did.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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