The House voted Tuesday to send the effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee. Trump celebrated it as an exoneration. Apparently a filing cabinet can now clear your name if you slam the drawer hard enough.

The vote was 211–204. Every voting Republican except Thomas Massie, who introduced the impeachment articles, supported the referral. With little time left in this Congress, the move effectively buries the effort for now, the BBC reports.

That's a political escape. It isn't a trial, an acquittal or a finding that the allegations are false. Moving the paperwork does not conduct the investigation. Otherwise every overstuffed desk in Washington would qualify as a courthouse.

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Massie's articles accuse Hegseth of waging war in Iran without congressional authorization and overseeing unlawful killings in the campaign against alleged drug boats. Those are allegations. Hegseth rejects the impeachment effort and says the military operations were lawful; he argues the resolution undermines national security.

Congress could examine that dispute. It has instead located a committee in which the remaining calendar can sit on it.

And Democrats? Eleven missed the vote, several citing traffic problems, according to the BBC. That doesn't establish how a different attendance list would have changed the result. It does mean some lawmakers managed to miss a vote about whether an official should be held accountable for doing his job. Gentlemen, ladies, the irony has ordered a car and arrived before you.

Democrats take control in January, so this fight may return. Hegseth has survived this round politically.

The cabinet secretary hasn't been acquitted by a court. He's been temporarily protected by a cabinet.