Impeachment and removal
The removal from office, and disqualification from holding any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.
The House of Representatives has "sole power of impeachment." The House has to vote on articles of impeachment. If they pass, the President "has been impeached" but is not yet removed from office. The case is sent to the Senate for trial. If the Senate votes by a two-thirds majority to convict, then the person will be removed from office.
In impeachment cases against the President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside.
Impeachment in recent history
In 1974, no impeachment proceedings had occurred since the Johnson trial over a hundred years earlier (discussed in Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage). Most Americans thought of impeachment as something quaint and bizarre in the history books.
In the House of Representatives decided to begin impeachment proceedings against Richard M. Nixon, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the Watergate affair. At the time, congressmen and their staffs were unfamiliar with the law and precedings involved with impeachment, and needed to research the question.
On July 27, 1974 the Committee on the Judiciary voted to recommend three articles of impeachment. The articles concerned his obstruction of justice during the Watergate investigations. Before his near-certain impeachment and conviction could occur, Nixon resigned from the presidency on August 9, 1974. Thus, Nixon was never actually impeached.
Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice relating to a scandal involving his personal conduct with a woman. He was acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999 on a party-line vote.
President Clinton was riding his in the polls and ready to pick his successor for the White House by late 1998. His leadership enabled the Democratic Party to do surprisingly well in the mid-term elections, and President Clinton was seeking to leave a lasting legacy.
Then the House of Representatives impeached him for making false statements under oath, which is perjury, and trial was scheduled for the Senate in 1999. First Lady Hillary Clinton accused her opponents of being part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" against her husband. The Democratic Senators all lined up behind President Clinton, promising to vote for acquittal.
Republicans enjoyed a majority in the Senate but lacked votes anywhere close to the requisite 2/3rd majority to convict. President Clinton was a lame-duck at that point anyway, and the real battle was over his ability to influence politics beyond his term.
The managers of the impeachment presented their case, but the Senate prevented them from calling key witnesses such as Clinton’s closest aids. The procedural rules hamstrung the trial and served to protect the president. Without the presentation of the full case, President Clinton easily survived the final vote.
But the victory was Pyrrhic. The Democratic presidential nominee in 2000, Al Gore, felt he had to distance himself from Clinton and that probably made the difference on Election Day. Since then, Clinton has had little success in campaigning for candidates, recently failing with Governor Gray Davis in California in the recall. Hillary Clinton, pollsters choice to run in 2004, apparently feels it is too soon to make an attempt. The political ramifications of the impeachment trial continue.