If you are an American, you probably understand the impeachment process, however if you are from a different part of the world perhaps you are not familiar with it. This is how the procedure works:
Impeachment doesn’t necessarily mean removal from office. It was established by the framers of the Constitution as a way to accuse a president of a crime and to hold a trial to determine if he is guilty of that crime. The Constitution lays out only two specific actions that could lead to impeachment and removal of a president from office.
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- Treason
- Bribery
The system also allows for a broader category to accuse a president of crime, although that category is ambiguous. A president can be charged and found guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” but… what exactly constitutes “high crimes and misdemeanors”? Actually, it is not defined in the United States Constitution, making impeachment on that basis more difficult.
Here is the step-by-step process
The hearing in the Senate, along with a charge in the House that the president has committed a crime is not a legal one. No penalty, other than removal from office, is brought against a president in an impeachment hearing.
Impeachment trials have been held twice in the country’s history — for President Andrew Johnson and for President Bill Clinton — and both ended in acquittals: meaning the presidents were impeached by the House, but not convicted and removed from office by the Senate.One vote kept Johnson from being convicted of firing the secretary of war in 1868, which went against a tenure act.
In 1999, the Senate was 22 votes shy of convicting Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by Paula Jones.
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