The Impeachment of Donald Trump (Update as of Early December 2019)

Samara Mathew (9) | STAFF REPORTER

Donald John Trump, the 45th and current president of the United States of America, is facing an ongoing impeachment inquiry that could see him removed from his position as leader. In American history, only four presidents (including Donald Trump) have faced impeachment inquiries. These presidents include Richard Nixon (in 1868, who wasn’t actually formally impeached by Congress, but came close) as well as Bill Clinton (1998) and Andrew Johnson (1974) – who were both formally impeached, but not officially removed from office through the impeachment process (they were acquitted by the Senate). As news of Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry continues to make headlines, let’s take a look at this complicated and lengthy process, what has happened so far as of early December 2019, and what could potentially occur with this case in the future.

Firstly, what is impeachment? Impeachment – a British constitutional practice dating as far back to the 14th century – is observed by the House of Representatives in the United States of America as a way for the government to hold “the king’s ministers, which are now more commonly known as “political leaders” in this day and age, accountable for any of their public actions in order to avoid abuse of such high power and responsibility. The end goal of an impeachment process is to potentially remove the leader who committed high crimes or misdemeanors, which in this case is the president of the United States of America, from office. High crimes and misdemeanors are defined as either actual criminal activity or outstandingly bad abuse of power in the minds of Congress. It’s a longer process with numerous steps and benchmarks. The main ones follow as suit:

1. The Impeachment Inquiry – in this first step, the House of Representatives will have gathered and started bringing forth evidence to show the possible misdemeanour of the president. They can bring forth witnesses as present their case.
2. The Impeachment Vote – in this step, the majority of the House of Representatives has to vote in favour (or not in favour) of impeaching the president. If this results in the majority voting not in favour of impeaching the president, the process will be stopped here.
3. The Senate Trial – this step will only happen if the House of Representatives achieves a majority vote in favour of impeaching the president. If that happens, then the Senate will hold a trial (considered more of a political trial rather than a legal trial) to determine if the president should be convicted of impeachment. Since this is more of a political process than a legal process, the trial doesn’t follow have to follow the same rules as a normal criminal trial does. The Senate is also allowed to structure the trial the way they want to – for instance, they are allowed to choose whether or not to allow witnesses to give in-person testimonies (live testimonies) during the trial.
4. The Senate Vote – in order for the president to be convicted, the majority of the Senate has to vote in favour of doing so. If the vote is not a majority, the process does not go any further and the president is acquitted, however if at least 67 senators (two-thirds majority rule) vote in favour of impeaching the president, the president will be removed from office. The president’s spot will be filled by the vice-president. If they feel as though they should take it a step further, the Senate can decide to ban the president from ever running for and occupying office ever again.

You might be wondering, why is Donald Trump facing the impeachment process? Well, it was revealed that in July 2019, Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky both engaged in a phone call, where Trump asked Zelensky for a political favour. It was claimed Donald Trump linked this favour of his to “foreign aid” and asked Ukraine to direct two investigations for him. Apparently, it started when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Donald Trump for an increase in military aid (to purchase more Javelin anti-tank missiles for their current conflict with eastern separatists, which amounted to $400 billion ). In return, Trump brought forth his “favour”. He wanted Ukraine to conduct an investigation about a theory mentioning that Ukraine had access to a Democratic National Committee email server (a situation Trump believes was set up to frame both him and Russia during the 2016 election), and one to investigate Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, for protecting a deal with the Ukrainian energy company called Burisma. He then proceeded to try and “seal the deal” by promoting the United States’ aid to Ukraine, saying that the United States helps Ukraine much more than any European country. It was also revealed that Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, carried out an order from Trump to freeze military aid to Ukraine with the “favour” not being confirmed as done yet – which Congress is potentially investigating as a “quid pro quo”, a favour expected in return for something. This can be considered an abuse of power, so the House of Representatives is now investigating, and as you know, brought forth an impeachment inquiry lead by Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chair.

The process of a formal impeachment inquiry for Donald Trump began on September 24th, 2019 and was officially initiated by the Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. As of the date this article was originally written (December 1st, 2019), the next impeachment hearing will take place this upcoming Wednesday (December 4th, 2019). This public hearing, to the contrast of previous public hearings, will be in the hands of the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee – meaning it won’t have new testimonies and details on the scandal, and instead, consist of constitutional law professors discussing the constitutional context of impeachment and key terms in the impeachment process, such as what high crimes and misdemeanours are defined as. If the process were to formally remove Trump from office, vice-president Mike Pence would be next in line for succession. After him would be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then the president pro tempore of the Senate Charles Grassley (Republican from Iowa), then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, so and and so forth.

So far, Donald Trump has denied the accusations and any involvement in this scandal with Ukraine and has accused his political opponents of treason. He insists that nothing out of order (not deemed appropriate) occurred during his phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky. On October 17th, Mick Mulvaney from the White House told everyone to stop making a big deal out of it, since it was normal for policy to have an influence on foreign aid. He told those gathered to “get over it”. Trump continues to insist that there is nothing wrong with what he did.

As the impeachment inquiry for Donald Trump continues to open up, and as we get further into the inquiry, new findings and information will most definitely be revealed, either for or against Trump’s case. If he truly did abuse the power granted to him as president, he should be held accountable for his actions and impeached. As of now, we can only hope that the right decision is reached sooner than later – whether that is Donald Trump being impeached or remaining in office.

Sources:

• Yglesias, M., & Prokop, A. (2019, November 5). The ultimate guide to the Donald Trump impeachment saga. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2019/11/5/20914280/impeachment-trump-explained.
• Impeachment. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Impeachment/.
• Dezenski, L. (2019, December 3). Why Wednesday’s impeachment hearing will be different. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/03/politics/house-judiciary-committee-impeachment-hearing-nadler/index.html.

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