With the House of Representatives voting in favour of his impeachment today, US President Donald Trump has registered his name in history, albeit for a reason he would like not to be associated with. With today's impeachment vote, Donald Trump has become only the third president in 240 years of US history to be impeached.
The Democratic-led House passed the abuse of power article of impeachment on a largely party-line 230-197 vote. The House then proceeded with a vote on the second article of impeachment charging him with obstruction of Congress. The second article was passed by a 229-198 vote.
Democrats led Wednesday night's voting, framed in what many said was their duty to protect the Constitution and uphold the nation's system of checks and balances. Republicans stood by their party's leader, who has frequently tested the bounds of civic norms. Trump called the whole affair a "witch hunt," a "hoax" and a "sham," and sometimes all three.
Donald Trump faced impeachment on two grounds:
(1) He is accused of abusing his office by asking Ukraine to start corruption investigations against Joe Biden, a former US vice-president who is also the leading Democratic contender in the 2020 US Presidential election. This in effect means trying to influence the election by pressuring a foreign country to investigate his rival candidate and smear his image;
(2) Donald Trump is accused of obstructing Congress from investigating this case.
(The two charges are explained in details below)
DONALD TRUMP'S REACTION BEFORE IMPEACHMENT
Donald Trump, who began Wednesday tweeting his anger at the proceedings, then flew to Battle Creek, Michigan, for a political rally.
He pumped his fist before an enthusiastic crowd, boasted of "tremendous support" in the Republican Party and said, "By the way, it doesn't feel like I'm being impeached."
As the debate unfolded, Trump on Twitter called the proceedings "AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA" and on his party.
A day before House of Representative voted in favour of his impeachment, Donald Trump wrote a strong-worded letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the letter, Donald Trump said the impeachment proceedings against him are a "total sham".
Donald Trump accused Nancy Pelosi of engaging in "perversion of justice" by allowing the impeachment proceedings. Denouncing the investigation, Trump said it is an "attempted coup" and said the Democrats are doing it to undo the 2016 US Presidential election when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter to all 232 Democratic members and urged them to abide by the constitution. The letter said: "Very sadly, the facts have made clear that President Donald Trump abused his power for his own personal, political benefit and that he obstructed Congress as he demanded that he is above accountability, above the Constitution and above the American people."
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CHARGES AGAINST DONALD TRUMP FACES
Abuse of power:
The first charge that Donald Trump faces is that he abused his power. In the present context (i.e. impeachment), abuse of power means that as President of the United States of America, Donald Trump used the immense powers vested in his office for personal benefit.
According to the US Constitution, a President can be removed from office on grounds of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours".
Though going by letter of the law, 'abuse of power' per se is not an impeachable offence, however, legal scholars have opined that the intent of the founders of the United States of America was that the phrase "other high crimes and misdemeanours" broadly encompasses abuse of power, a report said.
But what exactly did Donald Trump do?
Democrats have alleged that to influence the 2020 US Presidential elections, Donald Trump pressured Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to start corruption investigations against Joe Biden, who is the leading Democrat contender against Donald trump for the 2020 election.
It is alleged that to exert pressure on Ukraine to start this investigation, Donald Trump threatened it with withholding a massive security aid amounting to $400 million. This aid was extended once the news of it being withheld became public.
The Democrats accused Donald Trump of jeopardizing US' national security, endangering the US constitution and vitiating the 2020 presidential election.
Obstructing Congress:
The second charge against Donald Trump is that he obstructed the Congress from investigating the charge of abuse of office against him.
Donald Trump is accused of preventing members of his administration from cooperating with the investigation of the Congress. This, the Democrats say, is a "defiance" of the US Constitution.
"If the president can first abuse his power and then stonewall all congressional requests for information, Congress cannot fulfil its duty to act as a check and balance against the executive - and the president becomes a dictator," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler was quoted.
The Democrats' case rests in large part on a rough transcript of the call made by Donald Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In it, Donald Trump asks Zelenskiy to "do us a favour" and work with his attorneys in carrying out the investigations against Joe Biden that he sought.
Current and former US officials have testified that Donald Trump directed them to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine issues, despite the fact that the former New York mayor was a private citizen.
US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland provided some of the most damaging testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. He said he spoke directly with Donald Trump about the effort to pressure Ukraine and said other top administration officials were involved. He testified that Ukrainian officials understood they would have to announce the investigations in order to get the withheld security aid worth $400 million.
REPUBLICANS TRASH CHARGES
On the House floor, Republicans accused Democrats of seeking to use an unfair, rigged process to nullify the 2016 election.
The matter before the House today is based solely on a fundamental hatred of our president. It a sham, a witch hunt - and it tantamount to a coup against the duly elected president of the United States, Republican Representative Mike Rogers said.
Republican Representative Mike Kelly compared the impeachment to the Japanese attack on Hawaii Pearl Harbor in 1941, calling the House proceedings another date that will live in infamy - similar to the words Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt used to describe the raid that killed about 2,400 people and led to America entry into World War Two.
HAS ABUSE OF POWER BEEN USED FOR IMPEACHMENT BEFORE?
Yes, this has been used a ground for impeachment before.
In a report, abuse of power was one of the articles of impeachment advanced against President Richard Nixon, who resigned before a full House vote on the charges.
While approving the charge of abuse of power against President Nixon, a House committee had accused him of authorizing tax audits of his political opponents that were on his "enemies list."
In another case, abuse of power was advanced as an article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton too. This was in relation to his affair with a White House intern. However, a majority of House members voted against including this charge. President Clinton was eventually impeached on two other charges i.e. perjury and obstruction of justice. He was however not convicted by the Senate.
WHAT NEXT FOR DONALD TRUMP?
Despite the vote in favour of his impeachment, Donald Trump continues to be the president of the United States of America.
With the impeachment over now, the trial will start in the Senate within a month. The trial is expected to begin in January in the Senate, where a vote of two-thirds is necessary for conviction. While Democrats had the majority in the House to impeach Trump, Republicans control the Senate and few if any are expected to diverge from plans to acquit the president ahead of early state election-year primary voting.
The trial against Donald Trump in the Senate will be presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the US. The Senators will function as jury members in that trial. Donald Trump will be entitled to have a lawyer in the Senate to defend him.
At the end of the trial, the Senate would vote. If two-thirds of the Senate votes for conviction of Donald Trump, he would be removed as US president. The vice-president, in such case, will assume the role of the president for the remainder of the term.
However, there is only a slim chance of the impeachment process against Donald Trump reaching the trial stage and even slimmer of him being convicted in the Senate, where the Republican Party enjoys majority - 53 of 100 members.
No US president has ever been removed on account of impeachment. During the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon faced the threat of becoming the first president to be removed from office.
However, he resigned as the case reached the impeachment stage.
Donald Trump is unlikely to face a similar fate. But politics is a domain of all possibilities.