An impeachment proceeding is the formal process by which a sitting president of the United States is accused of wrongdoing. It is a political process and not a criminal process. The articles of impeachment in this case there's just one are the list of charges drafted against the president. The vice president and all civil officers of the U. The process begins in the House of Representatives, where any member may make a suggestion to launch an impeachment proceeding.
It is really up to the speaker of the House in practice, to determine whether or not to proceed with an inquiry into the alleged wrongdoing, though any member can force a vote to impeach. Over House Democrats introduced the most recent article of impeachment on Jan. The impeachment article, which seeks to bar Trump from holding office again, also cited Trump's controversial call with the Georgia Republican secretary of state where he urged him to "find" enough votes for Trump to win the state and his efforts to "subvert and obstruct" certification of the vote.
And it cited the Constitution's 14th Amendment , noting that it "prohibits any person who has 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion against' the United States" from holding office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats accelerated the procedure -- not holding any hearings -- and voted just a week before the inauguration of President Biden. When it comes to impeachment, the Constitution lists "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors," as justification for the proceedings, but the vagueness of the third option has caused problems in the past.
The Senate is tasked with handling the impeachment trial, which is presided over by the chief justice of the United States in the case of sitting presidents. However, in this unusual case, since Trump is not a sitting president, the largely ceremonial task has been left to the Senate pro tempore, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. It is an oath that I take extraordinarily seriously. To remove a president from office, two-thirds of the members must vote in favor — at present 67 if all senators are present and voting.
If the Senate fails to convict, a president is considered impeached but is not removed, as was the case with both Clinton in and Andrew Johnson in Technically, impeachment is the Senate's quasi-criminal proceeding instituted to remove a public officer, not the actual act of removal. Most references to impeachment, however, encompass the entire process, beginning with the House's impeachment inquiry.
The term will be used in that broader sense here. By design, impeachment is a complex series of steps and procedures undertaken by the legislature. The process roughly resembles a grand jury inquest, conducted by the House, followed by a full-blown trial, conducted by the Senate with the Chief Justice presiding. Impeachment is not directed exclusively at Presidents. The Constitutional language, " all civil officers, " includes such positions as Federal judgeships.
The legislature, however, provides a slightly more streamlined process for lower offices by delegating much of it to committees. See Nixon v. US , U. Presidential impeachments involve the full, public participation of both branches of Congress. At the time of the drafting of the Constitution, impeachment was an established process in English law and government.
The Founding Fathers incorporated the process, with modifications, into the fabric of United States government. The Constitution, however, only provides the framework-the basic who's, why's, and how's. The remaining procedural intricacies reside in the internal rules of the House and Senate.
As noted above, this includes Federal judges. It does not, however, include House Representatives or Senators. Article 2, Section 4 -- ". This implies that the impeachment process is not tightly linked to the criminal law. Senate history , Blount tried to resolve some financial difficulties by concocting a scheme to have a force of Native Americans and white settlers attack Florida and Louisiana, then Spanish colonies, and turn them over to Great Britain. The Senate expelled Blount for this corruption in which can be done without impeachment, by a two-thirds vote of the body and then went on to formally impeach him the next year.
Grant, was impeached by the House in over a kickback scandal at Fort Sill on the western frontier. Belknap resigned before being tried by the Senate, which nonetheless held the trial. The Senate found Belknap guilty with a vote of 35 to 25, failing to reach the crucial two-thirds majority needed for a conviction. The highest-profile impeachment cases, naturally, have been presidential.
In , Andrew Johnson would become the first U. Johnson, a Democrat, had been actively blocking attempts by the House's Radical Republicans — a faction of the Republican party that pushed to eradicate slavery — to bestow rights on freed slaves and to prosecute former Confederate leadership, according to a U.
Senate history. When Johnson fired his Secretary of War over opposition from Congress, which approves cabinet positions, the House brought 11 articles of impeachment or sets of charges against the president.
The Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict, allowing Johnson to serve out his term. The second presidential impeachment also ended with a failure to convict in the Senate. In , years after Johnson's impeachment, the House of Representatives brought articles of impeachment against Democratic President Bill Clinton, charging that the president had lied to a grand jury and obstructed justice in the investigation surrounding his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The Senate failed to convict Clinton of either perjury or obstruction of justice, and he finished out his term. Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science covering topics from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. A freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, she also regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association.
Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Live Science. Stephanie Pappas.
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