Presidential impeachment: What it is, and when it's been used

On Sept. 26, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, directed the Democratic committees investigating various allegations of wrongdoing by President Donald Trump and his administration to proceed under what she called an "umbrella of impeachment inquiry."

This was a largely a symbolic juncture because there hasn'tbeen a binding vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry,let alone to draftarticles of impeachment.

House Democrats then, on Oct. 29,unveiled a resolutioncallingfor open hearings and requiringthe House Intelligence Committee to submit a report on its findings and recommendations. The move aims tocounter complaints from Trump and his Republican allies that the closed-door impeachment proceedings have been illegitimate and unfair.

Developments continue to gatherspeed after reports first emerged of a whistleblower complaint that laid out concerns about Trump's dealings with the new president of Ukraine, including his encouragement to investigate 2020 presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukraine energy corporation.

Here's what the impeachment process looks like, and some of the historical examples.

What the U.S. Constitution says

Article II, Section IV of the constitution, ratified in 1788,stipulates that the president and other officers of government "shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours."

In his 2017 book,The Case for Impeachment, political historianAllan Lichtmanof American University wrote that "to keep a rogue president in check, delegates separated constitutionalpowers into threeindependent branches of government [executive, legislative, judicial].But knowing that a determined president could crashthrough these barriers, they also put in place impeachment as the rear guard of American democracy."

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Treason and bribery were not considered controversial grounds for impeachment in crafting the section's language, but terms such as "maladministration" and "malpractice" were bandied about before "high crimes and misdemeanours" were ultimately selected.

Joshua Matz, a constitutional lawyer, told CBCNews last year that high crimes has "been understood as referring to extraordinary abuses, or corruptions, of power, or betrayals of the nation that imperil American democracy and the broader political system."

The process

If a president's conduct is deemedto be eligible for impeachment, the House debates and votes on whether to bring charges that have been recommended by its judiciary committee, or potentially by an overarching committee or panel that isestablished. Asimple majority of the House's 435 members would lead to an impeachment resolution.

Theoretically, the Senate then holds a trial, with the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presiding. The president would be represented by counsel in Congress. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the Senate to convict and remove a president.

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There is no specific legislation outlining the trial process, with its scope and specificstobe determined by the Senate in a series of resolutions. A group of House lawmakers could be called upon to play the role of prosecutors in the Senate trial.

The experience

In his contribution to the 2018 book Impeachment: An American History, Jon Meachamwrites that after the firstattempt to impeacha president John Tyler in 1842 many presidentshave seen the spectre of an impeachment resolution wielded by angry political opponents.

History has shown it to be a divisive undertaking, politically, withlukewarm public support at best.Only eight officials all federal judges have been removed from office by impeachment, according to theNational Constitution Center, a Philadelphia-based non-profit that promotes education and debate about the constitution.

In 1998, Bill Clinton was the first duly elected president to be impeached, on two of four counts recommended by the Housejudiciary committee: committing perjury to a grand juryand obstruction of justice.

As with the 1868 impeachment ofAndrew Johnson who had ascended to the presidency after Abraham Lincoln's assassination a subsequent Senate trial did not lead to his conviction. Clinton's perjury charge was defeated 55-45, with a tally of50-50 on obstruction of justice.

Johnson was rung up on 11 articles of impeachment, nearly all related to his attempt to fire the secretary of war. Senate votes on three of those articles each failed to reach two-thirds support, and the trial was adjourned.

In the case of Richard Nixon,a previously undisclosed audio tape was released implicating him in the coverup of the Watergate break-in. He resigned a month after the judiciary committee approved three articles of impeachment.

A question of remedy

If it's believed Trump committed actual crimes while campaigning or in office, there is an additional question of whether impeachment isthe appropriate response.

In his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, special counsel Robert Muelleroutlined potential instances of obstruction of justice by Trump that could warrantfurther probing.But Muellerclearly felt that determination was best left to elected representatives and the American people.He also hewed to historical guidance from the Justice Department never actually tested that a sitting president can't be indicted.

Mueller wrote that impeachment for abuses of power was not a substitute for potential criminal liability once a president leaves office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, no doubt mindful of a potential backlash from voters as the Democrats look to regain control of both the Senate and the presidency in 2020, seems aware of the calculus.

According to a July story in Politico that quoted anonymous Democratic legislators from an internal meeting, Pelosi reportedly said, "Idon't want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison."

The public role

In an interview last year with CBC Radio'sDay 6,Matt Ford of the New Republic addressed some ofthe stakes for the Democrats with Trump embroiled in negative headlines about Russia.

"One of the things that really stands out about American history, especially when it comes toimpeachments, is that there hasn't really been a precedent set for removing a presidentfrom office," he said."And without that, Democrats have little to go onas to what threshold theAmerican people will need before they are willing to accept the removal of a presidentfrom office."

When the televised Watergate hearings began in May 1973, only 26 per cent of Americans surveyedthought Nixon should beimpeached, according to the Pew Research Center. As the existence of the tapes and the House recommendation of impeachment came in, the number of Americans who thought Nixon's actions warranted removal from office was still not overwhelming some 57 per cent as he prepared to resign.

In a Gallup-led pollafter the two articles of impeachment were approvedin December 1998,Clinton actually saw his approval rating jump to 73 per cent,his highest in six years as president, as asegment of the population clearly believedit to be an inappropriate prosecution.

Even so, in both the Nixon and Clinton cases, their respective partylost the next presidential election (by razor-thin margins), leaving open the possibility there was some residual negative effect.

In a poll released on Sept. 25by Quinnipiac University, 37 per cent of respondents said Trump should be impeached, while 57 per cent said he shouldn't.The results werehighly partisan 73 per cent of identified Democrats in favour, compared to four per cent of Republicans.