A lame-duck Tennessee Democrat has introduced 26 articles of impeachment against President Trump, framing the doomed measure as a roadmap if Democrats seize the House in 2026.

Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the resolution and cast it as legislative architecture for a future Democratic majority. Breitbart News reported the move and the statement Cohen issued with it.

Cohen will not sit in the House come January. He ended his re-election bid after redistricting made another win unlikely. He still chose to drop a 26-count package while Republicans hold the chamber and the measure stands virtually no chance of moving.

House leadership is expected to push the resolution into procedural limbo. Nine days before Cohen’s unveiling, the House voted 232-147 to shelve impeachment motions from Rep. Al Green of Texas. Cohen’s filing follows the same path under current control.

The resolution is not a near-term threat to the White House. It is a signal. Cohen and allies are writing the script they want ready if Democrats reclaim the speaker’s gavel after the 2026 midterms and turn the House into an impeachment engine.

Cohen calls Trump “the most impeachable President”

Cohen did not soften his language. In the statement released with the articles, he declared open political war on the administration’s second-term agenda.

Cohen said:

"Trump is clearly the most impeachable President our country has ever endured,"

He added:

"His continued presence in office is a danger to our democracy. That the sycophantic Republican majority in Congress is derelict in its duty does not mean that I must abandon my responsibilities."

Cohen tied the filing to his oath and to future historians. He said:

"I took an independent oath to support and defend the Constitution,"

And continued:

"That commitment compels me to introduce this resolution today. When historians write about this period, and our constituents ask who stood up to President Trump’s lawlessness, this resolution is the answer."

He closed by pointing past the current Congress. Cohen said he believes the 120th Congress will “better live up to its duties as co-equal branch of government and a check on the executive,” and added that he hopes the resolution “paves the way to accountability.”

That is the real product. A member who is leaving office is building a bill of particulars for colleagues who may still be there if voters hand Democrats the House.

Articles target core second-term policies

The 26 articles read like a catalogue of Democratic objections to the administration’s platform. Titles alone show the scope Cohen chose.

They include claims of sowing doubt in elections, waging war on Iran without congressional approval, and extrajudicial killings in international waters off Venezuela. Others charge the deployment of military forces against U.S. cities, an executive order on birthright citizenship, and the canceling of federal grants to punish states for their votes.

Further articles allege loyalty tests on the federal workforce, disregard of courts involving the Alien Enemies Act and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and cruel and unusual punishment at CECOT detention facilities. Cohen also listed unlawful withholding of appropriated funds, obstruction of U.S. attorney appointments, and defiance of court orders in immigration enforcement.

The package reaches into agency structure and fiscal power. One article claims the abolition of the Department of Education. Others cite mass termination of inspectors general, tariffs imposed through emergency powers, and illegal impoundment of appropriated funds.

Political and cultural fights fill out the list. Article XVI alleges political prosecutions of James Comey, Letitia James, and Adam Schiff. Separate counts target an IRS settlement, use of the pardon power, banishing reporters from the White House, and pressure on CBS and ABC over editorial content.

Still more articles claim retaliatory orders against law firms, coercion of universities through withheld funds, demolition of the White House East Wing without congressional approval, self-aggrandizement through renaming and seizure of civic property, and emoluments violations through personal profit from the presidency.

These are Cohen’s charges as titled in the resolution. The filing itself does not adjudicate them. It packages Democratic grievances into a single instrument ready for a different House majority.

Judiciary history shows how fast impeachment turns partisan

Cohen sits on the committee that would handle any serious impeachment push. That venue has a long record of partisan combat. The Washington Examiner previously detailed how leadership once shifted an impeachment inquiry off Judiciary and onto Intelligence after partisan bickering and theatrics bogged down the process, only for public hearings to wind down with nothing further scheduled.

That history matters now. A 26-article resolution from a departing member is not careful constitutional craftsmanship. It is a political document designed to rally the base and lock in a maximum agenda if the gavel changes hands.

Republicans currently hold the House and can table the measure. The fight Cohen is previewing is the one after the next election. Trump has predicted a big Republican win in the 2026 midterms, setting the stakes in plain terms for both parties.

Democrats are already treating legal and oversight fights as permanent campaign tools. The same Letitia James named in Cohen’s political-prosecution article has been locked in high-profile litigation with Trump for years, including battles over evidence in a massive New York case.

Trump’s lawyers have pressed James on missing evidence details in that $450 million matter, underscoring how personal and institutional the clash has become.

Separate allegations have also surfaced from inside her office. A whistleblower claimed staff were told to target Trump and his allies, adding fuel to Republican arguments that Democratic lawfare is organized, not accidental.

Midterms will decide whether this blueprint ever gets used

Cohen’s resolution arrives while the House is still under Republican control and while he is on his way out. The practical effect today is near zero. The political effect is the opposite.

He is telling Democratic activists and future committee chairs exactly what he wants pursued: immigration enforcement, executive power, universities, media, law firms, spending, and the president’s personal conduct. He is also telling Republican voters what a Democratic House would prioritize instead of border security, inflation relief, or basic governing.

Green’s motions were crushed on a bipartisan-tinged procedural vote. Cohen’s thicker package faces the same fate in this Congress. The difference is the calendar. The 2026 midterms will decide whether articles like these stay on a shelf or move to the floor.

Other pre-election fights already show how hard both sides are contesting the machinery of the next vote. An Obama-appointed judge recently blocked a Trump mail-in voting order nationwide with less than 90 days remaining before the midterms, another front in the same power struggle.

Democratic unity is not guaranteed either. Internal party fractures keep surfacing, including the backlash that hit Sen. John Fetterman after he broke with progressive orthodoxy. Democrats turned on Fetterman after he crossed the aisle at a GOP convention, proof that the left’s coalition is brittle even as it prepares maximalist oversight plans.

Cohen framed his exit filing as duty and history. Voters will see it as something simpler: a preview of the agenda Democrats intend to run if they take power again.

Americans heading into 2026 can decide whether they want another round of impeachment theater from a party that already tried this playbook, or a Congress that focuses on the country’s actual problems.