What is impeachment?

Article One of the United States Constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power of impeachment and the Senate the sole power to try impeachments of officers of the U.S. federal government. (Various state constitutions include similar measures, allowing the state legislature to impeach the governor or other officials of the state government.)

In contrast to the British system, in the United States impeachment is only the first of two stages, and conviction during the second stage requires "the concurrence of two thirds of the members present".^[28] Impeachment does not necessarily result in removal from office; it is only a legal statement of charges, parallel to an indictment in criminal law.

An official who is impeached faces a second legislative vote (whether by the same body or another), which determines conviction, or failure to convict, on the charges embodied by the impeachment. Most constitutions require a supermajority to convict. Although the subject of the charge is criminal action, it does not constitute a criminal trial; the only question under consideration is the removal of the individual from office, and the possibilities of a subsequent vote preventing the removed official from ever again holding political office in the jurisdiction where he or she was removed.

Impeachment with respect to political office should not be confused with witness impeachment.

The article on Impeachment in the United States discusses the following topics:

• Impeachable offenses: High Crimes and Misdemeanors
• Officers subject to impeachment
• Procedure
• Federal impeachment investigations formally commenced and officials impeached

The House of Representatives has initiated impeachment proceedings only 64 times since 1789, only 19 of these proceedings actually resulting in the House's passing Articles of Impeachment, and of those, only eight resulted in removal from office (all federal judges).

• History of federal constitutional impeachment
• Impeachment in the states

Two United States Presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998; neither was convicted by the Senate. Additionally, there were efforts to impeach John Tyler and Richard Nixon (Nixon resigned before proceedings began).
 
On September 24, 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the House was "moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry" into President Donald Trump, as the culmination of several such efforts.