Impeachment of the President – What is the Process

As most of you are probably aware, the House of Representatives is in the process of working on the impeachment process of President Donald Trump. In the history of the United States, this is the fourth presidential impeachment inquiry (Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump) and there have been two other Presidents who have actually been impeached (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton). No President has been removed from office through the impeachment process.  The following article will discuss how this impeachment actually occurs.

1. The House of Representatives has various committees that issue subpoenas, take depositions, and has various closed-door meetings to learn more of the facts of the situation. The House then votes on what the rules will be for the impeachment of the President, Donald Trump.
2. The House Intelligence Committee then conducts open hearings where they question witnesses. Once this questioning ends then they issue a public report.
3. The House Judiciary Committee conducts hearings where they invite legal scholars to discuss whether President Trump’s conduct would amount to an impeachable offense. The President and his counsel were invited but they did not participate in these hearings.
4. The House Judiciary Committee then prepares articles of impeachment and then that committee votes whether to approve the articles of impeachment. The House Judiciary Committee did approve the House impeachment articles.
5. The House then debates these impeachment articles and then takes a vote. If a majority of the House members vote no then the process ends. If a majority of the House members vote yes then the President must have a trial to determine if he violated any of the articles of impeachment.
6. A trial is held in the U.S. Senate and Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts presides over the trial.
7. The Senate then issues a summons to President Trump and asks him to respond to the impeachment by a certain date.
8. The President and/or his attorney respond to the articles of impeachment.
9. The trial then begins with opening statements and Senators questioning President Trump and the witnesses.
10. At any time a Senator may ask for a vote to dismiss and if the dismissal does not occur, then the trial will continue, evidence will be taken, and then closing arguments will be made by both parties. There will be deliberation and then the Senate will vote on whether President Trump should be convicted of a violation of the articles of impeachment. A conviction requires a two-thirds vote of the Senators.

Stay tuned for the results of this impeachment process of President Trump.

NOTE: This general summary of the law should not be used to solve individual problems since slight changes in the fact situation may require a material variance in the applicable legal advice.