Update: As of 1/14/2121 the President made history. He was the only President impeached twice. Charge: The article of impeachment alleges that Trump incited violence against the government of the United States. It stated that “members of the crowd he had addressed … unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President, and Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts.”
If convicted, the president is removed from office, and the vice president would take power. Apart from removal from office, the Constitution allows one other punishment for a convicted president — disqualification from holding “any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States” in the future.
What is impeachment?
Impeachment is the tool the US Constitution provides Congress to punish serious misconduct from the president. This misconduct can be treason or bribery, or it can fall into a vaguer, broader category of “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
How does impeachment work?
The House of Representatives can vote to impeach a president with a simple majority. But impeachment alone has no practical effect, other than kicking the matter to the Senate, which must hold a trial. That trial ends with a vote on a verdict — but it takes two-thirds of the Senators who are voting, a supermajority, to convict the president.
The House majority can run the process however it likes, as the Constitution grants the House the “sole Power of Impeachment.” Evidentiary standards — and even the charges themselves — don’t necessarily have to be grounded in law; it’s all up to Congress to decide what matters.
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body levels charges against a government official. In other words, the constitution prohibits the President from becoming king–abusing his/her authority. Treason is a betrayal that requires removal from office. Congress must monitor all government agencies for the A, B, C’s of impeachment. These are abuse, bribery, and corruption.
Impeachment does not guarantee the loss of a job. The House of Representatives must begin the process of discovery. They investigate the integrity or validity of a charge; then the Senate convicts. If found guilty in the House, the officer is impeached. A trial is held in the Senate to determine if the government official is removed from office. The charges fall into two categories: Civil or Criminal. According to the constitution:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanor
Impeachment applies to the following government positions:
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- Congressman/Congresswomen
- Judges
- President
- Vice President
- Cabinet members
- each state’s legislature can impeach state officials, including the governor, in accordance with their respective federal or state constitution.
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