The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the authority to remove the president of the United States from office in two separate proceedings. The first one takes place in the House of Representatives which impeaches the president by approving articles of impeachment through a simple majority vote. The second proceeding, the impeachment trial, takes place in the Senate. There, conviction on any of the articles requires a two-thirds majority vote and results in the removal from office.
Three presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives in U.S. history: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019. Johnson and Clinton were acquitted by the Senate and not removed from office. Trump's Senate trial began on January 16, 2020.
Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution provides:
The House of Representatives ... shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
Article I, Section 3, Clauses 6 and 7 provide:
The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present.
Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States; but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.
Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution limits the grounds of impeaching a president to "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors". Because the precise meaning of the phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" is not defined in the Constitution itself, it is left open to the interpretation of Congress, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Nixon v. United States that it did not have the authority to determine whether the Senate properly "tried" a defendant. Congress has, however, identified three general types of conduct that constitute grounds for impeachment, although these categories should not be understood as exhaustive
- Improperly exceeding or abusing the powers of the office.
- Behavior incompatible with the function and purpose of the office.
- Misusing the office for an improper purpose or for personal gain.
Other than the above constitutional provisions, the exact details of the presidential impeachment process are left up to Congress. Thus, a number of rules have been adopted by the House and Senate and are honored by tradition. Among them, The House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House, prepared by the House Parliamentarian, is a reference source for information on the rules and selected precedents governing the House procedure. Each Congress adopts its own rules. In 1974, as part of the preliminary investigation in the Nixon impeachment inquiry, the staff of the Impeachment Inquiry of the House Judiciary Committee prepared a report, Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment. This 1974 report has been expanded and revised on several occasions by the Congressional Research Service, now known as Impeachment and Removal.[1] The Senate has formal Rules and Procedures of Practice in the Senate When Sitting on Impeachment Trials.Nevertheless, both the House and the Senate are free to modify the procedures for each presidential impeachment and trial, respectively.
An impeachment proceeding formally begins with a resolution adopted by the full House of Representatives, which typically includes a referral to a House committee to proceed with an impeachment inquiry. The House Judiciary Committee then determines whether grounds for impeachment exist. If the Committee finds grounds for impeachment, it will set forth specific allegations of misconduct in one or more articles of impeachment. These articles of impeachment are then reported to the full House with the committee's recommendations.
The House then debates on the article of impeachments, either individually or the full resolution. A simple majority of those present and voting is required for each article for the resolution as a whole to pass. Upon passage, the president has been impeached. The House then selects "House Managers" to present the case to the Senate, in a role analogous to the prosecution or district attorney in a standard criminal trial. Finally, the House adopts a resolution to notify formally and present the passed articles of impeachment to the Senate.[1]
The proceedings in the Senate unfold similar to a jury trial, with the Chief Justice presiding and Senate members acting as the jury. The House managers present their case and the president has the right to mount a defense with their own attorneys. After hearing the charges, the Senate usually deliberates in private before voting whether to convict. A two-thirds super-majority vote is required to remove the president from office.
A two-thirds super-majority vote of conviction only removes the president from office. Following a conviction, the Senate may also vote by a simple majority to punish the individual further by barring them from holding future federal office, elected or appointed. Thus, if the Senate has the required two-thirds super-majority vote to remove a president from office during their first term, it would have to hold a second vote to ban them completely from running for reelection.Once removed, convicted individuals would still be subject to criminal prosecutions in an actual court of law for the same factual situations.