The morning after the Senate trial of President Trump was one of the rare occasions over my yearlong tenure as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee when I was able to join my family for breakfast. My duties for the impeachment and its trial had made me particularly scarce. My teenage daughter wasted no time, startling me as I was taking my first sip of coffee. “Dad, do you think the impeachment was worth it?” Instinctively, I immediately replied: “Of course it was, sweetheart!”

In the weeks since, as I packed up our files for transmission to the National Archives, said farewell to my co-counsel and returned full-time to life off Capitol Hill, I have often thought about her question. Had I told her the truth? Had Congress’s work on the impeachment and trial really left the nation, the Constitution and the future better off? How could I be so sure?

Since the Senate verdict, events have given an even sharper edge to my daughter’s question. The president’s misconduct has intensified: Having a decorated war hero and impeachment witness, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, marched out of the White House, together with his equally blameless twin brother; further actual and threatened retaliation against government officials like, most recently, Elaine McCusker, whose nomination to a top Defense Department post was withdrawn (after she questioned the suspension of assistance to Ukraine last year); public presidential interference with the Roger Stone sentencing; a rash of dubious pardons that undermine accountability for the corrupt and politically well-connected; and self-promoting presidential distortions about his handling of the coronavirus that bring to mind his false claim that his call with the president of Ukraine was “perfect.”

But I stand by my answer. Impeaching the president was absolutely worth it: The work of Congress to hold Mr. Trump accountable over the past year has left democracy and our nation stronger. There are five reasons.