Donald Trump Becomes First Us President To Be Impeached Twice
6 min read.
- Wednesdays historic 232-197 vote makes Trump the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, a little more than a year since his first
- Trump has hinted at possibly running for president again in 2024, but his political future was uncertain
President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House on a single charge of incitement of insurrection for his role in a riot by his supporters that left five dead and the Capitol ransacked, putting an indelible stain on his legacy with only a week left in his term.
Wednesdays historic 232-197 vote makes Trump the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, a little more than a year since his first. It was supported by all Democrats and 10 Republicans, including Liz Cheney, the third-ranking GOP leader in the House.
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We know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote. She called Trump a clear and present danger to this country that we all love.”
Pelosi will now determine how quickly to send the impeachment article to the Senate for a trial. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has rejected Democratic leader Chuck Schumers plea to agree to bring senators back for an emergency session and start the trial before Jan. 20 when Trump leaves office and President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
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What Will They Argue
The impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers both laid out their cases in legal briefs before the start of the trial.
The Democrats plan to establish that Trump is “personally responsible” for inciting the Capitol riot, and that he did so as part of a monthslong effort “to overturn the results of an election.”
Trump’s legal team has accused Democrats of political opportunism and “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” while defending Trump’s remarks at the rally as constitutionally protected speech.
Both sides have already clashed over the question of whether the trial itself is constitutional, since Trump has already left office.
“The Senate is being asked to do something patently ridiculous,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Try a private citizen in a process that is designed to remove him from an office that he no longer holds.”
The impeachment managers had preemptively replied that “there is no ‘January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution.”
Watch: Tensions Flare Between Trump Lawyer House Impeachment Manager
House impeachment managers sparred with defense attorneys for former President Donald Trump on the Senate floor Friday about everything from the evidence in the case to the constitutionality of the article of impeachment. At one point during the afternoon question and answer session, Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen said this “was about the most miserable experience” he’s ever had in Washington, D.C.
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He Violated Campaign Finance Laws
During the 2016 campaign, Trump had his lawyer make illegal hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up their sexual relationship, then Trump and his lawyer lied about it. This is a blatant violation of campaign finance laws.
During the 2020 campaign, Trump has repeatedly violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of the White House for strictly political purposes.
Renewed Sexual Assault Allegations
It has somehow, horrifyingly, been buried amidst all the recent chaos, but it must not be forgotten that there have been a substantial number of women whoâve come forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault. The allegations are as numerous as the accusers and cover varying degrees of unwanted sexual contact, all of which are illegal. And no one can forget his that surfaced in October.
Trump, at one point, threatened to sue all of these women, but as of now he seems to have forgotten all about that. But should the women reassert themselves? Trump will have much to answer for â first to Congress, then maybe even a judge.
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What Happened After Bill Clinton Was Impeached
“The day Clinton was impeached by the House was an electric moment in US history,” reports Aljazeera.
The Miller Center, a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia, said: “Nothing like this had so captured the attention of the American public since Watergate and Nixon’s resignation from office.”
The Republican-controlled House impeached the then president after months of controversy over his scandalous relationship with much-younger White House intern Lewinsky.
A Senate trial against Clinton started on January 7, 1999, and continued over four weeks, under Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
At the time, Republicans who were the political opposition to Clinton, controlled a 55-45 majority in the Senate.
The Senate voted 56-44 to seek depositions from Lewinsky and two Clinton aides.
Trump Celebrates His Acquittal Says The Impeachment Was Part Of A ‘witch Hunt’
The safety of Pence, and the assertion that Trump willfully did not act swiftly and decisively enough to protect his own vice president, was a point that was repeated throughout the closing arguments.
“When the vice president of the United States escaped a violent mob that entered this Capitol building, seeking to hang him and calling out ‘traitor, traitor, traitor,’ when they shut down the counting of the electoral college votes, is this the future you imagine for our kids?” Raskin asked.
Raskin used the closing argument to push back against the defense’s claim that Trump’s actions after the insurrection began aren’t relevant.
Impeachment manager Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., played a video montage of Trump repeating the false claim that the election had been rigged.
“This was not one speech. This was a deliberate, purposeful effort by Donald Trump over many months that resulted in the well-organized mob attack on Jan. 6,” she said.
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Unredacted Version Of Mueller Report
The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the unredacted Mueller report and Attorney General Barr has rebuffed this, leading to a contempt citation from the committee. A lawsuit is also contemplated.
On July 26, 2019, the Judiciary Committee asked federal judge Beryl Howell, who oversaw the Mueller grand juries, to unseal the secret testimony because the committee is “investigating whether to recommend articles of impeachment” to the full House. Howell ruled in favor of the request on October 25, 2019, finding the impeachment investigation legitimate.
On November 18, 2019, The House counsel filed a brief with Judge Howell to release the materials immediately, as redacted grand jury testimony appeared to show the President perjured himself before the Mueller probe and it was part of the impeachment inquiry.
On December 16, another brief by the HJC, said that they still needed the materials, as some redacted materials appear to be related to the Ukraine matter.Previously, an appellate court had scheduled oral arguments in the case for January 3, 2020.
Trump Et Al V Deutsche Bank Et Al
The House Financial Services and Intelligence committees issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank asking for financial records relating to Trump, his adult children, and his businesses. Trump’s personal attorneys tried to delay or prevent the information from being given to the committees by getting a court injunction. Although the defendants are Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank, U.S. district judge Edgardo Ramos permitted representatives of the House committees to take part. Ramos canceled a May 9 preliminary hearing when the committees agreed to hand over “substantial portions” of the subpoenas to the plaintiffs. On May 22, Ramos affirmed the validity of the subpoenas. Trump’s lawyers had asked Ramos to quash the subpoenas, but Ramos said such a request was “unlikely to succeed on the merits”. The committees later reached an agreement with Trump’s lawyers to delay enforcement of the subpoenas while an appeal is filed, provided the appeal is filed in an “expedited” manner. On May 28, Ramos granted Trump’s attorneys their request for a stay so they could pursue an expedited appeal through the courts. and briefs for it were due by no later than July 12. On June 18, The Trump legal team filed a brief similar to the one in the Mazars case.
Oral arguments began on August 23.
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Judiciary Comm Member Calls For ‘thoughtful ‘process’
The intelligence panel released a 300-page report on its findings Tuesday afternoon in which Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., concluded that Trump put his interests above the country’s and then covered up his actions with an “unprecedented campaign of obstruction.”
“The President engaged in this course of conduct for the benefit of his own presidential re-election, to harm the election prospects of a political rival, and to influence our nations upcoming presidential election to his advantage,” the report says. “In doing so, the President placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security.”
The fate of Trump’s presidency, his re-election hopes, the makeup of the next Congress and the ability of the three branches of government to check and balance power under the Constitution all hang in the balance as the Judiciary Committee opens its first hearing Wednesday.
The challenge for Democrats remains much the same as it has been to persuade more of the public and Republican lawmakers that Trump should be removed from office. They are well aware that neither opinion polls nor congressional Republican votes have moved in the week-and-a-half since the intelligence hearings wrapped up, and they know how they need to use the upcoming hearings to translate the facts of the case into support for impeachment.
Impeachment Is An ‘act Of Political Vengeance’ Trump Lawyer Says
“At no point was the president informed the vice president was in any danger,” Michael van der Veen argued, adding that there is “nothing at all in record on this point.” Van der Veen also accused the House impeachment managers of failing to do their due diligence on this issue.
“What the president did know is that there was a violent riot happening at the Capitol,” van der Veen said. “That’s why he repeatedly called via tweet and via video for the riots to stop, to be peaceful, to respect Capitol police and law enforcement and to commit no violence and go home.”
But van der Veen’s argument left senators with additional questions.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who says he is undecided on whether he’ll vote to convict Trump, asked for more details regarding Tuberville’s account of the call with Trump and his tweet railing against Pence.
“Does this show that President Trump was tolerant of the intimidation of Vice President Pence?” Cassidy asked.
But again, van der Veen disputed the sequence of events, calling discussion of Tuberville’s call “hearsay.”
“I have a problem with the facts in the question because I have no idea,” van der Veen responded.
Cassidy told reporters later that he didn’t think his question got a good answer.
Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, hailed by many for his heroism during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, participates in a the dress rehearsal for Inauguration Day.hide caption
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“History will wait for our decision.”
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With The Capitol Secured By Armed National Guard Troops Inside And Out The House Voted 232
President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House for a historic second time on January 13, charged with incitement of insurrection over the deadly mob siege of the Capitol in a swift and stunning collapse of his final days in office.
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With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and out, the House voted 232-197 to impeach Mr. Trump. The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just one week after violent pro-Mr. Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol, urged on by the Presidents calls for them to fight like hell against the election results.
Ten Republicans fled Mr. Trump, joining Democrats who said he needed to be held accountable and warned ominously of a clear and present danger if Congress should leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Bidens inauguration Jan. 20.
Mr. Trump is the only U.S. President to be twice impeached.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shows the article of impeachment against U.S. President Donald Trump after signing it in an engrossment ceremony, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on January 13, 2021. | Photo Credit: Reuters
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, imploring lawmakers to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
She said of Mr. Trump: He must go, he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.
Donald Trump May Run In 2024 So Might They Its Getting Awkward
On Saturday afternoon, Trump heads to Iowa for a rally at the state fairgrounds, a perennial stop on the presidential campaign circuit. Joining him will be several of the states top Republicans, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, Sen. Charles E. Grassley and the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, Jeff Kaufmann a testament to the former presidents enduring dominance.
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Trump Impeached By The House For Abuse Of Power Obstruction Of Congress
President Donald J. Trump was impeached on Wednesday.
For the third time in the nation’s history, the House of Representatives voted to impeach a sitting president, acting after a daylong debate on whether Trump violated his oath in pressuring Ukraine to damage a political opponent.
Trump was impeached on two articles. The first vote, 230-197, accused him of abuse of power and was almost entirely on party lines it was followed quickly by a second, 229-198, vote accusing the president of obstructing Congress. The one-vote difference was that of Democrat Jared Golden of Maine, who voted yes on abuse of power and no on obstruction.
No Republicans voted against Trump. Two Democrats, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is expected to switch parties soon, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted with Republicans against both articles. One Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president, voted “present” on both articles.
The trial in the Republican-controlled Senate on whether to remove the president from office will likely begin in early January. It is likely that Trump will be acquitted, because a two-thirds majority is required for conviction.
Overview Of Impeachment Process
- See also: Impeachment of federal officials
The United States Congress has the constitutional authority to impeach and remove a federal official from officeincluding the presidentif he or she has committed an impeachable offense. Impeaching and removing an official has two stages. First, articles of impeachment against the official must be passed by a majority vote of the U.S. House of Representatives. Then, a trial is conducted in the United States Senate potentially leading to the conviction and removal of the official.
In most impeachment trials, the vice president presides over the trial. However, in impeachment trials of the president, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides. In order to remove the person from office, two-thirds of senators that are present to vote must vote to convict on the articles of impeachment.
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