ARKANSAS (KNWA) — The impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump began Wednesday, November 13. House Democrats are holding the public hearings, and that may lead to drafting articles of impeachment.
In the history of the United States, two presidents have been impeached — Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. President Richard Nixon faced impeachment, but resigned before that happened.
Here is more information about the men who “violated the law.”
Andrew Johnson: The 17th President of the United States (1865-1869) was from North Carolina, moved and married in Tennessee. Andrew Johnson became involved in politics in the 1840s. President Lincoln appointed Johnson as Military Governor of Tennessee in 1862 and in 1864 he became vice president. After Lincoln’s assassination, he became president. As a pro-union Democrat, he overstepped his position by removing and replacing appointees from office. Congress accused him of violating the “Tenure of Office Act.” The allegations against Johnson are what set the standard for future impeachments in that Presidents should be impeached based on what the Constitution states: Treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
William J. Clinton: The 42nd President was born in Hope, Arkansas on August 19, 1946. He’s a Georgetown University graduate and got his law degree from Yale University in 1973. In 1975 he married Hillary Rodham, the following year was elected Attorney General for Arkansas and Arkansas Governor in 1978. On January 20, 1993, Clinton was inaugurated as President and served two terms.
On October 8, 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives began impeachment proceeding against Clinton for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The charges were for lying under oath (denying he had a sexual relationship with a White House intern) and obstruction of justice (suggesting to White House staff to deny the sexual encounter(s) ever happened).
On December 19, 1998, he was impeached by the House. The articles of impeachment were adopted and given to the U.S. Senate for a formal decision. The trial began in January 1999 and the following month Clinton was acquitted on both counts. He finished out his second term.
Richard Nixon: Three articles of impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors” was filed by the House Judiciary Committee in the summer of 1974 against Richard Nixon, but he resigned before the accusations moved forward.
The California native was born in 1913 and graduated from Duke University Law School in 1937. He married and moved to Washington in 1942.
Nixon was first elected on November 5, 1968, and reelected in November 1972. But, even before his reelection, the Watergate investigation was underway with E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, and others, being indicted by a federal grand jury on September 15, 1972.
The Watergate scandal involved a break-in at the Democrat Party headquarters at the Watergate office-apartment complex in Washington, D.C., during the 1972 U.S. presidential campaign. It was this incident that led to possible impeachment proceedings of the 37th president, but he resigned on August 9, 1974.
Impeachment: “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.”
— U.S. Constitution, Article II, section 4
Read here for more about impeachment.
