President Impeachment: US President Trump to be impeached

IASbaba

December 20, 2019

POLITY

TOPIC: General Studies 2:

Comparison of the Indian constitutional scheme with that of other countries

Daily Current Affairs IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 20th December 2019

Context:

Donald Trump became the third US President to be impeached. The first was Andrew Johnson in 1868 and then Bill Clinton in 1998.
The impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump was initiated on September 2019 when a whistleblower alleged that Trump may have abused the power of the presidency
The House Intelligence Committee released a 300-page impeachment report accusing President Donald Trump of trying to enlist Ukraine to help him in the 2020 presidential election and obstructing the congressional inquiry by trying to cover it up.

Why?

A whistleblower alleged that Trump may have abused the power of the presidency by withholding military aid as a means of pressuring newly elected president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to perform two favors:

To pursue investigations of Joe Biden and his son Hunter,
To investigate a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election.

More than a week after Trump had put a hold on the previously approved military aid,400mn
He made the aforementioned requests in a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, which the whistleblower alleged was intended to help Trump’s re-election bid.

US impeachment process

The US House of representative (435 members) needs to pass the impeachment motion by a simple majority, after investigation by judiciary committee
The motion of Impeachment then goes to the Senate (Upper House consisting of 100 members), where a trial presided by Chief Justice takes place with representative from House acting as prosecutors and the President & his attorneys presenting his defence
A two-third majority in Senate is necessary to convict and remove the President.
If the President is convicted, the Vice-President takes over the White House for remaining period of tenure.)

Indian Impeachment process

In India, President can be impeached for violation of the Constitution (Article 61)
The motion for impeaching President can be introduced in any House of Parliament.
After the investigation, the motion of impeachment must be passed by a two-thirds majority of the total membership of the House by both Houses of the Parliament.

Connecting the dots: