Impeachment occurs when the Constitution permits Congress to remove a president before their term is up. The Constitution specifies in Article II, Section 4 that “the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” according to USA Today. These requirements have been looked into recently by the White House due to possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. With this discussion being raised, many citizens begin to wonder what the process is that leads to removal of office.

The first step in the impeachment process is a house vote. They are able to vote on one or more articles of impeachment that can contain different reasoning. If one of these articles gets a majority vote, the president is then impeached or formally accused.
Following this step, the Senate gets involved through a trial. The trial has many rules that go along with it in order to follow the right steps of the process. For example, the trial must be overseen by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. As for prosecutors, members of the house fill the role and face the president’s defense lawyer. If two thirds of the senate find the president guilty, he is removed from office and the vice president is asked to fill his place.

In President Trumps case, his actions could potentially fall under obstruction of justice. After firing FBI director James Comey, it was released that Trump had asked Comey to drop former charges on former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Another allegation that is reason to impeach is Trump’s contact and released information with Russian officials.

In U.S. history, two presidents have been impeached, but neither were convicted. Both Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton were convicted by the House but then acquitted by the Senate. In Richard Nixon’s case, he resigned before the results of the impeachment trial finished.  If Trump were to be removed from office, he would be the first in history to do so.