California's Rep. Ted Lieu, a co-drafter of articles of impeachment, says that "unless Trump resigns" — which he won't — "Congress must impeach to hold him accountable" — which a mere indictment does not.
Not in any substantive way. It would be but a symbolic gesture — and, often observed 11 months ago, impeachment is always and fundamentally a political act; absent equally swift conviction and removal, a partial remedy for Trump's high crime of sedition would be squandered. His disciples will characterize his indictment as nothing more than Democratic revenge, and cheer the failure of conviction as vindication.
While avoiding the fraught issue of impeachment, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder notes that "Trump is, for now, the martyr in chief, the high priest of the big lie." And letting him off the hook by deploying symbolism over punishment is, to be somewhat redundant, an impotent maneuver.
Impeachment "historically will be important," says Andrew Weissmann, former deputy to Special Counsel Robert Mueller (and here I'll forego the usual lament about Americans and the "importance" of history). "But," he adds, "the danger is he is acquitted and the momentum of condemnation now is lost." I would add that that danger is more of a high probability than speculation.
More than the "momentum of condemnation" would be lost, however. Also lost would be that critical spark of prosecutorial detonation: the absolute necessity of principled members of Congress demanding, above all else, that the Department of Justice immediately do more than promise "a careful look" at Trump having seditiously acted in flagrante delicto. The fulgent proof of his crime is as if there were video-taped evidence of O.J. Simpson's murderous deeds. One needn't be all that careful to see what's right in front of one's nose, as Orwell remarked.
If symbolism is all that Congress can muster, then by all means, let it dabble in substantive emptiness. But if more than symbolism is to be realized, then congressional action must be devoted to a stentorian campaign calling for the ex-president's arrest at 12:01 p.m., 20 Jan., for seditious conspiracy, punishable for up to 20 years in prison — for Trump, a life sentence. (To hell with his imminent self-pardon, an act awaiting the courts' nullification.)
Impeachment is a weak proxy for actually doing something. I, for one, intensely favor — actually doing something.