““The single exception [to impeachment for crimes committed prior to becoming president] is spelled out in a rhetorical question posed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 by George Mason of Virginia: “Shall the man who has practiced corruption & by that means procured his appoint in the first instance, be suffered to escape punishment, by repeating his guilt?”’ ‘Mason was referring to something specific: efforts to bribe members of the Electoral College, and thus to distort the process of presidential selection. But we should read his concern more broadly. It captures any candidate’s effort to procure his office through corrupt means.’ https://theprint.in/world/trumps-action-before-he-became-president-should-not-be-grounds-of-impeachment/298763/
““The single exception [to impeachment for crimes committed t prior to becoming president] is spelled out in a rhetorical question posed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 by George Mason of Virginia: “Shall the man who has practiced corruption & by that means procured his appoint in the first instance, be suffered to escape punishment, by repeating his guilt?”’ ‘Mason was referring to something specific: efforts to bribe members of the Electoral College, and thus to distort the process of presidential selection. But we should read his concern more broadly. It captures any candidate’s effort to procure his office through corrupt means.’