The 10 Steps to Impeach a President
By Robert Reich
To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3at2Y7gvCnk
It won’t be easy to impeach Donald Trump. No president in American
history has ever been convicted on articles of impeachment.
Only two presidents so far have been impeached by the House and had that
impeachment go to the Senate for trial.
The first was Andrew Johnson, in 1868, when the Senate came one vote
short of convicting him.
The next was 131 years later, in 1999, when Bill Clinton’s impeachment
went to the Senate. 50 Senators voted to convict Clinton, 17 votes short of
what was needed.
What about Richard
Nixon? He resigned early in this process, before the House had even voted on
articles of impeachment.
And then his successor, who had been his vice president, Gerald Ford, gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he might have committed against the United States while president.
This isn’t to say
Trump couldn’t or won’t be impeached. Only that it’s a long and drawn-out
process.
It all revolves around
Article I Sections 2 and 3 of the
Constitution, and rules in the House and the Senate implementing those
provisions.
Step 1. It starts in the House
Judiciary Committee, when a majority of the member vote in favor of what’s
called an “inquiry of impeachment” resolution.
Step 2. That resolution goes
to the full House of Representatives where a majority has to vote in favor. And
then votes to authorize and fund a full investigation by the Judiciary
Committee into whether sufficient grounds exist for impeachment.
Step 3. The House Judiciary
Committee investigates. That investigation doesn’t have to be from scratch. It
can rely on data and conclusions of other investigations undertaken by, say,
the FBI.
Step 4: A majority of the
Judiciary Committee members decides there are sufficient grounds for
impeachment, and the Committee issues a “Resolution of Impeachment,” setting
forth specific allegations of misconduct in one or more articles of
impeachment.
Step 5: The full House then
considers that Resolution and votes in favor of it – as a whole or on each
article separately. The full House isn’t bound by the Committee’s work. The
House may vote to impeach even if the Committee doesn’t recommend impeachment.
Step 6: The matter then goes
to the Senate for a trial. The House’s Resolution of Impeachment becomes in
effect the charges in this trial.
Step 7: The Senate issues a
summons to the president, who is now effectively the defendant, informing him
of the charges and the date by which he has to answer them. If the president
chooses not to answer or appear, it’s as if he entered a “not guilty” plea.
Step 8 is the trial in
the Senate. In that trial, those who are representing the House – that is, the
prosecution – and counsel for the president, both make opening arguments. They
then introduce evidence and put on witnesses as in any trial. Witnesses are
subject to examination and cross-examination. The trial is presided over by the
chief justice of the Supreme Court – who has the authority to rule on
evidentiary questions or may put such questions to a vote of the Senate. The
House managers and counsel for the president then make closing arguments.
Step 9: The Senate meets in
closed session to deliberate.
Step 10: The Senate returns in
open session to vote on whether to convict the president on the articles of
impeachment. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote by the Senate. Conviction on
one or more articles of impeachment results in removal from office. Such a
conviction also disqualifies the now former president from holding any other
public office. And it doesn’t bar additional legal proceedings against that
former president, and punishment.
So there you have
it–the 10 steps that must all take place to impeach the president.
It may come in handy.
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center
for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton
administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective
cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books,
including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of
Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
INEQUALITY FOR ALL.