Explained: Donald Trump’s Second Impeachment

Now that a few months have passed since the US Presidential hullabaloo, we can afford to take a quick look at the chaos that it was. More importantly, one incident in particular. 

Which one? Well, Donald Trump’s second impeachment.

Although Donald Trump is no longer in the White House, he underwent his second impeachment trial and was acquitted of his charges on February 13, 2021. This trial is by no means an ordinary one- for the first time ever in American history, a president got impeached twice, including once after leaving office, with the largest number of Senators voting for the conviction of a President of their own party. So we wouldn’t be exaggerating if we said this impeachment trial is not just unprecedented, but in fact, quite historic. 

Hold on. What does impeaching a US President even mean and how does one do that?

‘Impeachment’ essentially refers to the formal process by which members of the United States Congress can press charges against, and eventually remove ‘the President, Vice President, and all federal civil officers for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors’. (Article II, Section 4 of the American Constitution)

There are two stages to this. First, members of the House of Representatives formally ‘impeach’ the concerned federal civic official. That means they vote to press charges against the concerned official. If the vote for impeachment gets a 51% majority, the official is then put on trial in front of the Senate. Senators vote to decide whether the official is convicted or acquitted. If the said official is convicted by the Senate on a 67% majority, they would then be formally removed from their office. The impeachment trial is often highly political in nature, and as such, whether the Senate has a Democrat majority of a Republican majority has a significant effect on whether an impeached President is convicted.

Make no mistake, ‘impeachment’ does not directly mean removal from office or a criminal conviction. It merely means that the House has accused an official of crimes that could constitutionally warrant their removal and that they will be voting for a Senate trial against the official. It is the Senate that finally decides if the official will be removed from office. Historically, the Senate is where impeached Presidents would be saved from a possible removal. 

Who all can be impeached?

Any official appointed by the United States federal government can be impeached, including Presidents, members of his Cabinet, federal judges, as well as Supreme Court Justices. Military officers and members of the United States Congress are exempt from impeachment.

To date, the United States House of Representatives has impeached three Presidents; Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. The Senate acquitted all of them.

Okay, so why did Trump get impeached the second time around?

The House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump on charges of ‘incitement of insurrection’. They alleged that Trump had incited the mob that stormed into the Capitol on January 6, resulting in the death of 5 people including a U.S. Capitol Police officer. After the trial, Trump was acquitted by the Senate on a 57-43 vote.

Wait, so you can be impeached even after your tenure?

So here’s the interesting part- before this, no President has faced such a late impeachment. Whether a former President can be impeached at all however is a question whose answer remains unclear until the American courts step in with a clarification. This point was also in fact raised by Donald Trump’s lawyers, who argued that according to the impeachment clause in the American Constitution, the Senate can only convict a sitting President. However, 56 Senators voted to continue Donald Trump’s trial, thus overriding the argument that a ‘late impeachment’ is unlawful. 

In 1974, when President Richard Nixon quit, the impeachment proceedings against him were also stopped. In the past, officials of lower ranks were impeached after the end of their tenure. 

This is his second impeachment trial. What happened at the first?

The first impeachment took place in December 2019. Donald Trump, who was President then, was accused of illegally seeking help from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in order to dig up unproven claims of corruption against the current President and his then political rival Joe Biden, as well as his son Hunter Biden. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, in an announcement in September 2019, said ‘The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonourable fact of the President’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections’. 

The House of Representatives impeached him on two grounds, abuse of power and obstruction of the Congress in December 2019, and in February 2020, Trump was acquitted of both charges by the Senate.

What would it mean if he was convicted?

If he was convicted in this impeachment trial, American lawmakers would have held another vote to disallow Trump from holding "any office of honour, trust or profit under the United States", thus consequently disallowing him from running for President in future. A conviction might have also stripped him from the benefits that are granted to former Presidents under the 1958 Former Presidents Act.
 

Is impeachment possible in India?

Yes, officials of constitutional positions can be impeached in India as well. According to Article 61 of the Indian Constitution, the President of India can be impeached by the House of Parliament. Going by Article 124(4) of the Constitution, judges and the Chief Justice of India can also be impeached. Justice V. Ramaswami was the first judge against whom impeachment proceedings were started.