A thread on impeachment:
- What is it?
- What can a president be impeached for?
- How does the process work?
This will be long, sorry, but it’s quite interesting (I promise)

First things first: impeachment is a constitutional mechanism through which a president *can* be (though isn’t necessarily) removed from office

(It also applies to other elected officials, but let’s focus on presidents here)

Impeachment exists as a way to remove a president who has done something wrong, without having to wait for an election. It was in the constitution when it was written.

This was well before the 25th amendment, which offers a separate mechanism to remove a president.

So: what can a president be impeached for? Well, it’s complicated. Sorry.

The constitution sets out some specific things as impeachable offences: bribery, treason.

But the constitution then also refers to ‘other high crimes and misdemeanours’ as impeachable offences. Those are not defined in the constitution. There is big debate among legal and constitutional experts about what that phrase means.

A rule of thumb is that a president cannot be impeached for being rubbish at their job, or for doing things you don’t like.

It’s about misusing or abusing the presidency in some way- which may or may not involve an actual crime. (Tho not everyone would agree with this)

Ultimately, though, as Gerald Ford once said: an impeachable offence is ‘whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be’ at that moment.

Impeachment is a constitutional process, but it’s also got a political element.

So: how does it work?

Usually, the first step is for a House Committee- which tends to be the Judiciary Committee- to consider and draw up Articles of Impeachment. Each Article is like a charge, or an indictment. Committee then votes on each one.

Any Articles which pass the Committee are then sent for debate and vote by the whole House of Representatives. Each Article needs only a simple majority to pass the House.

If an Article is passed then the president is impeached- i.e charged.

(But the Committee stage doesn’t *have* to happen. Articles of Impeachment could just be introduced and voted on in the full House. Would just require a simple majority to pass. This may well be how things go this week.)

Anyway, the House voting to impeach on one or more Articles does NOT mean the president is removed from office. Because being impeached is merely step one.

What then happens is the President is put on trial by the Senate.

The trial in the Senate is presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. All senators swear an oath. They basically act as the jury.

The President has a legal team to act for them.

And the House appoints some of its members as ‘managers’ who are like prosecutors.

Senators will probably wrangle over exact procedure of how the trial works, eg how long it will take. Whoever controls the majority of the Senate will likely get their way.

Both sides present their opening arguments- president’s legal team vs House-appointed impeachment managers.

Senators may then ask questions- in writing, not verbally. This is supposed to stop senators from making big ol’ speeches.

Then Senate decides whether to move to end the trial, or to carry on; and on whether to potentially introduce more evidence and witnesses.

If they decide to introduce more evidence/witnesses, they the Senate has to decide precisely how they do that. It’s the job of the Chief Justice to make sure that the Senate is following its own rules (he doesn’t make the rules himself).

Eventually, the trial comes to an end with each side presenting closing arguments. Senators then deliberate (this could be done in public or in closed session). Then, they vote.

(We are getting to the end of this thread, I promise!!)

To be thrown out of office, the President only needs to be convicted on any one Article of Impeachment. Conviction requires a 2/3 majority of senators (67 of 100)

If convicted, the President cannot appeal.

This is a very high bar- and it has never been met in US history. Three presidents have been impeached, but none were subsequently convicted and removed from office.

The reason that the bar is so high is because impeachment is a Big Deal. It shouldn’t be taken lightly. And requiring a 2/3 majority to convict almost guarantees that there has to be cross-party agreement.

What makes this likely impeachment v unusual are two things.

First, the president is being impeached for a second time- and within little over a year.

I am 30 and 66% of presidential impeachments have happened in my lifetime. Soon that is likely to be 75%.

Second thing is that this is happening within days of a president leaving office.
So political questions for GOP- do they impeach and convict so close to Trump leaving office?
And process questions: can a president be tried after he has left office, for example? All v complex.

Final things: yes, if a president is impeached and convicted, they can lose things like future pension, and can lose ability to run for office in future (this would require another vote on top of conviction, tho just a simple majority)

Oh, and: when the Senate comes to vote on whether to convict, it’s also possible for them to introduce and vote on a censure resolution. This would not remove the president from office, but is a way of giving them A Very Big Telling Off.

Ps final fun fact- in all the ceremonial procedures at the end of the Senate trial, if the Chief Justice has presided over more than 100 hours in the Senate, then they can get given a golden gavel. No idea.

If you’ve made it to the end of this thread: nerd points for you

SORRY ONE LAST THING.

Senate trial take up lots of time. A new president is entering office. He had an agenda he wants to get passed AND needs Senate to confirm his key appointments. Those things take time also. So Dems will need to figure out how to manage all these things.