President Trump Has Been Impeached

What you need to know and what it means going forward

Katelin Hogard, Contributor

In December, before students ventured home and trudged away from exams, President Trump was charged with two articles of impeachment by the House of Representatives.

It all began in September when an intelligence official, the whistleblower, filed a formal complaint about Trump’s actions against Ukraine. This came after President Trump made a phone call to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and pressured him to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden. While digging for dirt, Trump threatened to hold back $400 million dollars of military aid that had already been allocated by Congress.

A senior official later testified that President Trump made clear the release of the aid was conditional on Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden being investigated. 

According to the BBC, President Trump denies using military aid as a bargaining chip for dirt on the Bidens, after these accusations surfaced. A rough transcript of the phone call revealed President Trump urging Ukraine’s President Zelensky to investigate allegations, but Trump claims the call was “perfect” and says it was completely appropriate to request that Ukraine “investigate corruption.”

In December, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi banged her gavel and with a slow clap toward his direction, charged President Trump with two articles of impeachment. One for his abuse of power, the digging of dirt and bargaining with Zelensky; and the second for obstruction of Congress, threatening to hold back military aid already granted by Congress unless dirt was given.

Impeachment happens in two stages: the first stage has already happened and is when two articles of impeachment are brought to the House of Representatives and passed in a vote along party lines. The second stage heads to the Senate where a trial is held. 

The House is Democratically lead, so the articles of impeachment were no surprise. Now the difficulty sets in. The Senate is in a Republican majority, President’s Trump party, and to be removed from office it requires a two-thirds vote from the Senate.

Before this vote comes a trial. As of this week, Nancy Pelosi has not released the articles to the Senate to begin the process because her and Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, are in fisticuffs over how the trial should be dictated. 

Republicans aren’t budging to call witnesses later on in the trial, after hearing from the House impeachment managers and President Trump’s defense, which comes in three parts: Ukraine’s President Zelensy said he felt no pressure, the Ukrainians were unaware the aid was held back, and the US military aid was eventually released. 

Democrats are urging the Senate to approve witness testimony before reviewing the articles and Republicans are adamant on having the trial framed exactly like Bill Clinton’s in 1999.

A little history: the two cases of impeachment most people are familiar with are Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Nixon resigned in 1974 before he could be impeached after his Watergate scandal. Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on the grounds of perjury and obstruction of justice – lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. When Clinton’s trial reached the Senate, they agreed to hear the case and then decide if calling witnesses was necessary. In Clinton’s case, the Senate was led by his party, the Democrats. A two-thirds vote didn’t even come close and they failed to convict Clinton. 

According to Politico, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has requested four witnesses to be called, including White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security advisor to Trump, John Bolton.

What happens if, by an odd miracle of humanity, a two-thirds vote is in favor of removal and President Trump is convicted? He’s removed and Mike Pence is the successor. With an additional Senate vote, he could also be disqualified from holding future federal office. 

A little fun fact: the only other president impeached was Andrew Johnson in 1868. He was accused of dismissing his secretary of war against the will of Congress. The two-thirds majority in the Senate was missed by just one vote.