Impeachment

The Constitution gives the House the sole power of impeachment and the Senate the sole power to try impeachments. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States may be removed on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The framers borrowed the procedure from England but limited its punishment to removal from office and, optionally, disqualification from holding federal office in the future. Criminal prosecution remains separately available.

The House impeaches by a simple majority vote on articles of impeachment, usually drafted by the Judiciary Committee after an investigation. The House then appoints managers, members who act as prosecutors in the Senate trial. Senators sit as a court and take a special oath, and when the President is tried, the Chief Justice presides. Conviction requires two thirds of the senators present. Once an official is convicted, the Senate may vote by simple majority to bar the person from future office. The meaning of high crimes and misdemeanors is decided by Congress itself and is generally understood to include serious abuses of power, not only indictable crimes.

The House has impeached 21 people a total of 22 times: fifteen federal judges, three Presidents, Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021, two cabinet secretaries, William Belknap in 1876 and Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024, and one senator, William Blount, in 1797. The Senate has convicted only eight, all judges. No President has been removed, though Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 after the Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment against him.