Impeachment meaning – can President Donald Trump be impeached, what is impeachment and how does it work?

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Getty Images Trump's 'crimes' were well known to the electorate before taking office

What is impeachment?

Impeachment is where a formal accusation of serious wrongdoing is lobbied against a sitting president or any other senior US official.

According to the United States Constitution, the House of Representatives can vote to impeach but it's the Senate, the upper chamber, which actually tries the case.

The US Constitution states a president "shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours".

The process has to be started by the House of Representatives – currently controlled by Trump's own party – and needs a simple majority to pass.

However impeachment does not necessarily result in removal from office – it is only a legal statement of charges.

A trial is set in the Senate and a two-thirds vote is necessary for removal – but in America's history this milestone has never been reached.

Who has been impeached?

Only two presidents in history have been impeached, despite numerous threats on others.

The most recent was the 42nd president of the United States Bill Clinton, who was impeached in the House on two charges, one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice, on December 19, 1998.

However, when it reached the Senate in 1999, it failed to get close to the two-thirds backing in needed to pass.

The other was Andrew Johnson, who served as president for four years from 1865.

He was impeached by the House in 1868 – just 11 days after he got rid of his secretary of war Edwin Stanton.

The two-thirds majority needed to get rid of him in the Senate was missed by just one vote.

Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached over the Watergate scandal.

Elsewhere, South Korean president Park Geun-hye was impeached over an alleged corruption scandal following months of protest.

She became the first democratically-elected leader of the country to be ousted from office after judges upheld politicians' vote to impeach her.

Can Donald Trump be impeached?

Donald Trump could technically be accused of violations of his oath of office to "preserve, protect and defend" the US constitution, according to Lawfare Blog.

More than 890,000 people signed a petition calling for Donald Trump to be impeached, which sprung up almost immediately after he was inaugurated.

Democrat Robert Reich, who served in the Clinton administration, claims there are four grounds on which Trump could potentially be impeached.

The first, according to Reich, is his unproven claim that President Obama ordered his phones to be wire-tapped without providing any evidence.

Secondly, he says the constitution forbids government officials from taking things of value, but claims Trump is “steering foreign diplomatic delegations” to his Trump International Hotel.

China recently granted preliminary approval for dozens of Trump-branded businesses, including new hotels, spas, massage parlours and personal security services.

Reich also said Trump's ban on travel from six Muslim-majority countries violates the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, which bans any law "respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof".

3dfd02262b6fddd0b1ba09ca66b3e233 Impeachment meaning – can President Donald Trump be impeached, what is impeachment and how does it work?

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