Donald Trump: 4 American presidents who faced impeachment, 1 resigned (Updated)
With the successful impeachment of Donald Trump by the United States House of Representatives, the embattled leader becomes the third president of the country to have faced such action and ended up impeached.
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Interestingly, he becomes the first president in history to be impeached twice, and he will now be tried by the chief justice of the American Supreme Court and the country’s Senate.
Legit.ng outlines a list of US presidents who have faced impeachment.
1.Donald Trump
Trump was impeached after an investigation that lasted for some time by the lawmakers, whose speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said the president gave them no other option than to approve the action against him.
He was accused of putting pressure on Ukraine to excavate some damaging information about Joe Biden, a Democrat challenging him in the 2020 presidential election, as well as the latter’s son, Hunter.
The president was said to have threatened to withhold a $400 million military aid to Ukraine as a way to get the country to do his bidding. The lawmakers described this as abuse of power.
He was further accused of refusing to cooperate with the investigation by Congress.
His second impeachment was because, according to the House, he made inciting statement that led to the attack on the Capitol Hill last week.
2. Richard Nixon
He was the second American president to have faced impeachment and before he could be hit, he resigned on August 8, 1974.
His tenure was reported to have been riddled with controversies, one of which was the Watergate scandal, where five men got arrested for trying to bug the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Source: UGC
The trial for his alleged involvement in the crime commenced on January 8, 1973, and this led to the resignation of the two top officials of his government as well as the attorney-general.
During the investigation, Nixon was accused of refusing to turn in the taped phone calls between him and the alleged criminals, but the president cited executive privileges as his defence.
By October 1973, many other top officials had turned in their resignation as the crisis continued. The case dragged into 1974 and on May 9 of that year, a judiciary committee of the House of Representatives began impeachment against Nixon as approved by the lawmakers.
He was found guilty of various offences by the committee and the report was transferred to the House for voting. However, Nixon turned in his resignation before further actions could be carried out against him.
3. Bill Clinton
He would be remembered as the third president of the United States to have faced impeachment over major scandals that rocked his administration.
Within 1994, Clinton faced the Whitewater scandal, which had something to do with finance, and an alleged illicit affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern.
Source: UGC
The president was sued for this act, but he pegged his argument on the fact that as president, he had immunity over civil cases. His trouble got bigger when in 1997, the Supreme Court of the US threw out the argument.
He later confessed in August 1998 that he, indeed, had an affair with Lewinsky and this was after he was accused of committing perjury by lying under oath.
With glaring evidence and the release of tapes by Lewinsky in relation to affair, he faced impeachment from the House of Representatives on 11 charges.
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Out of the 11 articles against Clinton, the House released four on December 11, 1998, to include that he lied, he committed perjury, obstructed justice and abused power. He was impeached.
As expected, he faced another trial by the country’s Senate on February 12, 1999. He was acquitted after he reportedly apologised and when the Senate could not get the needed two-thirds majority for his impeachment.
4. Andrew Johnson
The first American president to be impeached in history was Andrew Johnson. He was impeached on February 24, 1868.
He was the 17th president of the United States of America.
Johnson, a Democrat, was accused of overreaching his powers. He was charged with eleven articles of impeachment but was primarily accused of using his veto power to bar congressional processes as they tried to reconcile post-civil war and post-slave trade America.
His impeachment was initiated and carried out by House Republicans of the time.
Source: UGC
Legit.ng reports that embattled President Donald Trump said his impeachment by the lawmakers is actually targeted at the Americans.
Trump also described his impeachment as an attempted coup by the Democrats.
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Rahaman Abiola (Editor-in-Chief) Rahaman Abiola is an award-winning journalist and Editor-in-Chief with over 8-year experience. He holds a degree in English & Literature from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria (2015). He's a recipient of the Mile Media Award, Kwame Karikari Fellowship. His works have appeared in Punch, The Nation, Tribune, The Cable, Sahara Reporters and others. rahaman.abiola@corp.legit.ng
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