What Is Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal charge brought by the House of Representatives against a federal official. It is not removal from office. The House impeaches by simple majority vote, much like a grand jury handing up an indictment, and the Senate then holds an impeachment trial where only a two-thirds vote can convict and remove.
Impeachment proceedings are one of the few places where the three branches meet head-on. Congress judges the executive branch, and when a president is on trial the Chief Justice of the United States presides. It is the sharpest edge of the checks and balances the Framers built, and the least used.
The United States Constitution splits the two halves deliberately. Article I gives the House “the sole Power of Impeachment” and gives the Senate “the sole Power to try all Impeachments.” Article II sets out who can be charged and for what: the president, vice president, “and all civil Officers of the United States” may be removed for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
A charge, not a firing. Impeachment is the accusation. Removal happens only if the Senate convicts, and most impeachments never reach that step.
Key facts
- The House has impeached 21 federal officials since 1797, in 22 separate impeachments. The Senate has convicted and removed eight, and every one was a federal judge (U.S. House History, Art & Archives)
- Four presidential impeachments, three presidents, zero removals. Donald Trump is the only president impeached twice (Senate.gov)
- The House needs a simple majority. The Senate needs two-thirds, the highest bar in the Constitution
- The only grounds are “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” a phrase the Constitution never defines (Constitution Annotated)
- Impeachment cannot imprison anyone. Its only penalties are removal and, in a separate vote, disqualification from future federal office
Members of Congress cannot be impeached. The Senate settled that in 1799, when it dismissed the charges against Senator William Blount on the ground that a senator is not a civil officer of the United States.
What the Framers Actually Built
The most common complaint about impeachment today is that it has become partisan. The man who designed the Senate’s role said so first.
Writing as Publius in 1788, Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist 65 that impeachable offenses are those “which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.” Such offenses, he wrote, “may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself.”
Then he named the flaw.
”In many cases it will connect itself with the pre-existing factions, and will enlist all their animosities, partialities, influence, and interest on one side or on the other; and in such cases there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.”
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 65, 1788That is not a critic’s description of modern impeachment. It is the design note, written before the Constitution was ratified, by the person arguing in favor of the arrangement.
The design was contested at the time. James Madison argued at the Constitutional Convention that a president tried by the Senate alone would be “made improperly dependent,” and he preferred a role for the Supreme Court. He lost that argument, and the Senate kept the trial power.
The grounds were left broad on purpose. The Convention debated “maladministration” as a standard and rejected it as too vague, worrying it would let Congress remove a president for governing badly. They chose “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” instead, then left the definition to Congress rather than the courts. That choice is why impeachable offenses are still argued over 238 years later, and why no court will settle it.
How an Impeachment Actually Runs
The word covers a sequence, not a single event, and most of the sequence never makes the news.
From Inquiry to Verdict
- Weeks to months The House opens an impeachment inquiry Usually run by the House Judiciary Committee, which gathers evidence, takes testimony, and decides whether conduct rises to an impeachable offense. Most inquiries end here.
- After the inquiry The committee drafts and approves articles of impeachment Each article is a separate charge, voted on separately. Nixon reached this step in 1974 and resigned before the next one.
- One floor vote The full House votes, and a simple majority impeaches A bare majority is enough, which is why impeachment itself is achievable whenever one party controls the House. This is the moment the official is impeached.
- Immediately after The House appoints managers to prosecute the case House managers act as the prosecutors, presenting evidence to the Senate. The official mounts a defense with their own counsel.
- Days to weeks The Senate sits as a court of impeachment and holds a trial Senators serve as the jury under oath. The Chief Justice presides when the president is on trial; otherwise the presiding officer is a senator.
- Final vote Two-thirds of senators present must vote guilty to convict Conviction removes the official immediately. A separate simple-majority vote can then bar them from ever holding federal office again. Anything short of two-thirds is an acquittal.
Sources: Senate.gov, Impeachment; Constitution Annotated, Article I and Article II.
The Senate can also decline to hold a trial at all. In April 2024 it voted to dismiss both articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas before arguments began, ending the proceeding in about three hours.
A Charge Against a Removal
The most common confusion is that impeachment ends a presidency by itself. It does not. It is also not a criminal trial, and it is not the 25th Amendment, which addresses a president’s inability to serve rather than misconduct.
Three Tools People Mix Up
| Question | Impeachment | The 25th Amendment | A criminal trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Misconduct in office | Inability to serve, not wrongdoing | Breaking the law |
| Who decides | The House charges, the Senate convicts | The VP and Cabinet, then Congress if disputed | A judge and jury |
| What it takes | House majority, then two-thirds of the Senate | Two-thirds of both chambers if contested | Proof beyond a reasonable doubt |
| Penalty | Removal, and possible disqualification | Powers pass to the VP, reversibly | Prison, fines, a criminal record |
Source: Senate.gov; Constitution Annotated, Article II and Amendment 25
The penalty row is the part people miss. Impeachment cannot send anyone to prison, undo a law, or reverse a policy. A convicted official can still be prosecuted separately in a real court, and an acquitted one can be too. Our 25th Amendment explainer covers the inability route in full.
The Full Record, 1797 to Today
Presidents dominate the coverage and are the smallest part of the record. Plotted across 229 years, the thing readers come for is the rarest mark on the page.
- Federal judge 15
- President 4
- Cabinet secretary 2
- U.S. senator 1
Fifteen of the 22 were federal judges. After Halsted Ritter in 1936, the House impeached nobody at all for 50 years.
Sources: U.S. House of Representatives History, Art & Archives; Federal Judicial Center.
| Year | Event | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1797 | William Blount, U.S. senator, Tennessee | U.S. senator |
| 1803 | John Pickering, District judge, New Hampshire | Federal judge |
| 1804 | Samuel Chase, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court | Federal judge |
| 1830 | James H. Peck, District judge, Missouri | Federal judge |
| 1862 | West H. Humphreys, District judge, Tennessee | Federal judge |
| 1868 | Andrew Johnson, President of the United States | President |
| 1873 | Mark W. Delahay, District judge, Kansas | Federal judge |
| 1876 | William W. Belknap, Secretary of War | Cabinet secretary |
| 1904 | Charles Swayne, District judge, Northern Florida | Federal judge |
| 1912 | Robert W. Archbald, Judge, U.S. Commerce Court | Federal judge |
| 1926 | George W. English, District judge, Eastern Illinois | Federal judge |
| 1933 | Harold Louderback, District judge, Northern California | Federal judge |
| 1936 | Halsted L. Ritter, District judge, Southern Florida | Federal judge |
| 1986 | Harry Claiborne, District judge, Nevada | Federal judge |
| 1988 | Alcee Hastings, District judge, Southern Florida | Federal judge |
| 1989 | Walter Nixon, District judge, Southern Mississippi | Federal judge |
| 1998 | William J. Clinton, President of the United States | President |
| 2009 | Samuel B. Kent, District judge, Southern Texas | Federal judge |
| 2010 | G. Thomas Porteous, District judge, Eastern Louisiana | Federal judge |
| 2019 | Donald J. Trump, President of the United States | President |
| 2021 | Donald J. Trump, President of the United States | President |
| 2024 | Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security | Cabinet secretary |
Sorted by office, the pattern is impossible to miss.
Every Federal Impeachment by Office
| Office | Officials impeached | Convicted and removed |
|---|---|---|
| Federal judges | 15 | 8 |
| Presidents | 3 (4 impeachments) | 0 |
| Cabinet secretaries | 2 (Belknap 1876, Mayorkas 2024) | 0 |
| U.S. senators | 1 (Blount 1797, charges dismissed) | 0 |
Source: U.S. House of Representatives History, Art & Archives; Federal Judicial Center
The reason is the two-thirds rule meeting party politics. A district judge has no bloc of senators whose careers depend on protecting them. A president has half the chamber. Conviction requires 67 of 100 senators, which means a large share of the president’s own party must vote to remove their own president, and that has never happened.
The Four Presidential Impeachments
Four impeachments, three presidents, and one resignation that beat the vote.
- Andrew Johnson impeached, acquitted by one vote The House charged him over firing the Secretary of War in defiance of Congress. The Senate came to 35-19, one short of the 36 then needed.
- Richard Nixon resigns before the House can vote He left the White House in August as the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment over Watergate, so he was never formally impeached at all.
- Bill Clinton impeached, acquitted Perjury and obstruction charges tied to the Lewinsky investigation. The Senate split 45-55 on perjury and 50-50 on obstruction, far short of 67.
- Trump impeached over Ukraine, acquitted Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. In February 2020 Mitt Romney became the first senator ever to vote to convict a president of his own party.
- Trump impeached again for incitement, acquitted After the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The Senate voted 57-43 to convict, with seven Republicans joining, still ten votes short.
Sources: Senate.gov; U.S. House of Representatives History, Art & Archives.
The Presidential Cases, 1868 to 2021: 1868 — Andrew Johnson impeached, acquitted by one vote (The House charged him over firing the Secretary of War in defiance of Congress. The Senate came to 35-19, one short of the 36 then needed.). 1974 — Richard Nixon resigns before the House can vote (He left the White House in August as the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment over Watergate, so he was never formally impeached at all.). 1998 — Bill Clinton impeached, acquitted (Perjury and obstruction charges tied to the Lewinsky investigation. The Senate split 45-55 on perjury and 50-50 on obstruction, far short of 67.). 2019 — Trump impeached over Ukraine, acquitted (Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. In February 2020 Mitt Romney became the first senator ever to vote to convict a president of his own party.). 2021 — Trump impeached again for incitement, acquitted (After the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The Senate voted 57-43 to convict, with seven Republicans joining, still ten votes short.).
Andrew Johnson came closest, in 1868, when the Senate fell one vote short after Senator Edmund G. Ross broke with his party. The 2021 vote against Donald John Trump was the most bipartisan in the modern era at 57-43, and it still missed by ten. Across four trials spanning 153 years, the closest any president has come to removal from office remains that single vote in 1868.
Richard Nixon is the case that proves the rest. He is the only president who would plainly have been removed, and he is the one who never faced a Senate vote, because he left the White House first.
Impeachment in 2025 and 2026
Impeachment has been in near-constant circulation since January 2025, and none of it has reached a Senate trial.
Resolutions filed and shelved. House members have introduced at least five impeachment resolutions against President Trump in the 119th Congress, including H.Res.353 with seven articles ranging from obstruction of justice to usurping Congress’s appropriations power, H.Res.537 over war powers, and H.Res.939 charging abuse of power to intimidate federal judges. The House voted to table impeachment resolutions twice, on June 24, 2025 by 344-79 and again on December 11, 2025 by 237-140 with 47 members voting present. Both times a large share of Democrats voted with Republicans to set them aside.
Impeachment aimed at judges. In March 2025 President Trump called for impeaching Chief Judge James Boasberg of the federal district court in Washington, after Boasberg temporarily blocked deportations under an eighteenth-century wartime law and ordered flights already in the air turned around. On March 18, 2025, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement through the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office.
”For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Chief Justice John Roberts, March 18, 2025That exchange sits directly on top of the record above. Judges are the only officials impeachment has ever actually removed, which makes the threat against them more than rhetorical, and it is why the Chief Justice answered at all.
A Cabinet secretary dismissed without a trial. The Senate voted 51-48 and 51-49 on April 17, 2024 to dismiss both articles against Secretary Mayorkas without hearing arguments, the first Cabinet impeachment since 1876 and a reminder that the Senate can end a case by declining to hold one.
The Honest Disagreement
Serious people disagree about what impeachment has become, and the disagreement is real.
One side sees a check working as intended. The tool exists for a president who abuses power, and using it puts the conduct on the permanent record and forces every senator to vote on it. The high bar was meant to keep removal from being casual.
The other side sees a weapon that has been dulled by overuse. When resolutions are filed and tabled repeatedly, and when the outcome of a trial is known before it begins, a grave constitutional remedy starts to look like a messaging exercise.
The record hands both sides something, and the strongest case against Hamilton’s fatalism has a name and a date.
On February 5, 2020, Mitt Romney voted to convict Donald Trump of abuse of power, becoming the first senator in 230 years to vote to remove a president of his own party. It changed nothing about the outcome. Trump was acquitted the same afternoon, and Romney knew he would be before he stood up. A year later, seven Republicans voted to convict on incitement. Bill Clinton’s trial had already drawn more cross-party acquittal votes than either Trump proceeding.
So the party line is real but not absolute, and Hamilton’s “comparative strength of parties” describes a strong tendency rather than an iron law. What the record does not support is the idea that partisanship broke something that used to work. It has never removed a president, in any era, under any party alignment, and the man who designed it said it would not.
Common Misconceptions About Impeachment
Impeachment is not removal. The House impeaches. Only a two-thirds Senate conviction removes anyone, and that has never happened to a president.
It is not a criminal proceeding. No one goes to prison through impeachment. Criminal charges are a separate matter in a separate court, before or after.
“High crimes and misdemeanors” does not mean a statutory crime. The phrase covers abuse of public trust, and Congress alone decides what qualifies. No court reviews that judgment.
Impeachment is not rare across government, only at the top. Twenty-one officials have been impeached and eight removed. The unusual thing is not impeachment, it is a president surviving one.
A president cannot be impeached for a policy the country dislikes. The Framers considered “maladministration” as a standard and rejected it precisely to keep governing badly from being a removable offense.
Disqualification is a separate vote. Conviction removes an official. Barring them from future federal office requires an additional vote, which takes only a simple majority.
Frequently asked questions
Does impeachment remove someone from office? No. Impeachment is the charge, voted by the House. Removal happens only if two-thirds of the Senate convicts at trial, which has never happened to a president.
Has any president ever been removed? No. Four presidential impeachments have produced four acquittals. Andrew Johnson came closest in 1868, one vote short. Nixon resigned in 1974 before the House voted, so he was never impeached at all.
Who has actually been removed by impeachment? Eight federal judges, out of 21 officials impeached since 1797. No president, Cabinet secretary, or senator has ever been convicted.
What counts as a high crime or misdemeanor? Whatever the House and Senate decide it means. The Constitution does not define it, the Framers left it broad on purpose, and courts will not review the judgment.
Can a president be impeached after leaving office? The Senate tried Donald Trump in February 2021 after his term ended and voted 56-44 that the trial was constitutional, then acquitted him. The underlying question has never been settled by a court.
Can federal judges be impeached over their rulings? They can be impeached for anything the House calls a high crime or misdemeanor, but Chief Justice Roberts stated in March 2025 that impeachment “is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” pointing to appeals as the proper route.
What is the difference between impeachment and the 25th Amendment? Impeachment addresses misconduct and runs through Congress. The 25th Amendment addresses a president who is unable to serve, and runs through the vice president and Cabinet.
What You Can Do
- Ask your senators where they stand on impeaching judges over rulings. Chief Justice Roberts called that out publicly in March 2025, and it is a live question with a direct answer. Judges are the only officials impeachment has ever removed.
- Push for the oversight tools that work between impeachments. Hearings, subpoenas, inspectors general, and the appropriations process check a president far more often than impeachment does. Ask your representative which ones they have used this term.
- Keep the charge and the removal straight when you argue. Treating impeachment as removal hands the other side an easy correction and costs you the point.
- Read the primary sources. The Library of Congress guide to federal impeachment collects the constitutional text, the House rules, and the full case record.