How Impeachment Works
Impeachment is a constitutional charge and a Senate trial — a remedy for public office, not a criminal case.
The House decides whether to bring charges; the Senate decides whether to convict. Removal requires a two-thirds vote, a deliberately high bar that has never been reached for a President. Impeachment decides only whether someone keeps federal office and may hold it again — criminal or civil accountability, if any, happens separately.
No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued.
George Mason, Constitutional Convention, 1787
The Path
Senate trial
House managers prosecute; the accused may present a defense.
Who Can Be Impeached, and for What
The President, Vice President, and “all civil Officers of the United States” — which includes Cabinet members and federal judges, but not members of Congress — can be removed for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” That last phrase has never been precisely defined. It isn’t limited to criminal offenses, and most scholars read it to cover serious abuses of public office. In practice, the meaning is decided by the House and Senate each time they act.
The House’s Role
The Constitution gives the House “the sole Power of Impeachment.” Any member can introduce articles, but they usually advance only through the Judiciary Committee and a floor vote. Leaders sometimes move to table articles filed by individual members, which ends them without a vote on the merits.
The Senate Trial
Senators sit under oath as a court of impeachment. The Chief Justice presides when a President is on trial; otherwise the Vice President or President pro tempore does. The Senate sets its own rules for evidence and witnesses, and there is no appeal from its verdict.
What Impeachment Can and Can’t Do
Can: remove from office
Conviction removes the official immediately.
Can: bar future office
A separate simple-majority vote can disqualify from future federal office.
Can’t: impose criminal punishment
No fines or prison; prosecution, if any, is a separate process in the courts.
Impeachment in Practice
The House has impeached three Presidents — Andrew Johnson (1868), Bill Clinton (1998), and Donald Trump (2019 and 2021) — and the Senate acquitted each time. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before the full House could vote. Two Cabinet secretaries have been impeached: William Belknap in 1876 and Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024, whose articles the Senate dismissed without a trial. Most impeachments in history have involved federal judges — see Federal Judges.