Impeachment of the U.S. President

Why in news?

Donald Trump has become the third US President in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives.

Click here to read more on impeachment process in the U.S.

What is the procedure?

• The United States Congress of the federal government of the U.S. is a bicameral legislature.
• It comprises of the two chambers - the House of Representatives and the Senate.
• Impeachment refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a President.
• The House acts as the accuser, voting on whether to bring specific charges against the President.
• A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach, after which the Senate conducts a trial.
• In effect, the House members act as the prosecutors and senators as the jurors.
• A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a President from office.
• The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial.

What are the charges made?

• The House voted on two charges:
  1. the President abused his power
  2. the President had obstructed Congress
• The ‘abuse of power’ stemmed from Trump's alleged attempt to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into his Democratic political rival, Joe Biden.
• The ‘obstruction of Congress’ was due to President’s alleged refusal to co-operate with the impeachment inquiry.
• He also withheld documentary evidence and barred his key aides from giving evidence.
• The vote for the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, was passed 230-197 and the second, for obstruction of Congress, 229-198.
• Both votes fell along party lines with nearly all Democrats voting for the charges and all Republicans against.

What was the allegation on abuse of power?

• Mr Trump had personally blocked nearly $400m in military aid to Ukraine.
• At about the same time, he spoke by phone with Ukraine's new President.
• The aid was allegedly withheld to pressurize Ukraine's President to investigate a leading domestic political rival of Trump, Joe Biden.
• [Joe Biden is the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in the U.S.]
• A U.S. intelligence official filed a whistleblower complaint to the intelligence community's inspector general in this regard.
• The allegation now is that Mr Trump used the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the US 2020 election.
• Mr Trump has denied the charges, saying the aid was not withheld in order to put pressure on Ukraine.

What is the effect of impeachment?

• With impeachment by the House of Representatives, the next step is the trial in the Senate.
• This will ultimately decide whether the President remains in office or not.
• Being impeached places Donald Trump alongside only two other presidents in the nation's history - Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

Source: BBC