Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1194267
19.12.19 14 US Impeaching Donald Trump: What happens next? US President yesterday faced impeach- ment in a a historic vote in the US House of Representatives. But what happens next? e Senate will now determine whether that will happen at a trial in January 2020, with the senators sitting as jurors, House politicians serving as prosecutors known as managers, and the chief justice of the US presiding over it. ey will then be required to vote, where two-thirds of senators present must agree on a conviction to oust the command- er-in-chief. But the Republicans hold the majority in the Senate so it's likely Trump will be acquitted. e House will this week decide wheth- er to empower House Speaker Nancy Pe- losi to name impeachment managers who will act as prosecutors during the Senate trial. "at's the last thing we want to do is be here over Christmas," Republican Sena- tor John Cornyn told Politico. "I can't imagine anyone will object. You never know for sure. It would be widely criti- cised by folks on both sides of the aisle, anybody who [fought it] and forced us to stay here." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon- nell said last week that he would be "total- ly surprised" if there were the necessary 67 votes in the chamber to convict Trump and signalled options for a swift trial. Trump is the fourth president in US his- tory to face the prospect of impeachment for alleged misconduct in office. e two other presidents impeached by the House, Bill Clinton and Andrew John- son, were both acquitted by the Senate. House Republicans have displayed re- markable unity during the impeachment process and none of them are expected to vote for impeachment. 20 of the 53 Republican senators would need to join all Democratic-voting sena- tors to reach the two-thirds supermajori- ty the Constitution requires for impeach- ment. The process e impeachment process began in the House Judiciary Committee, which last Friday drafted and then approved arti- cles of impeachment to be sent to the full House of Representatives by a vote, where they need a simple majority to pass. In the articles of impeachment, Demo- crats charge that Trump abused his office to benefit his re-election prospects. Days after withholding a nearly $400 million military-aid package to Ukraine, he used a July 25 phone with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to pres- sure the Ukrainian government to inves- tigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian oil-and-gas company. Multiple career diplomats and national security officials testified under oath that the Trump administration explicitly con- ditioned lifting the hold of the military aid to Ukraine and a White House meeting on Zelensky publicly announcing inves- tigations into Burisma and a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. What exactly is impeachment? Impeachment by the House doesn't mean automatic removal from office. e impeachment process can be thought of as somewhat analogous to a criminal proceeding, even though impeachable of- fenses don't have to be criminal offenses. e House, like a grand jury, collects evidence, hears testimony, and drafts ar- ticles of impeachment — or charges — against the president. e constitutional mechanism for the impeachment of a federal officer includ- ing presidents, vice presidents, and feder- al judges is laid out in Article II, Section 4 of the US constitution, which reads, "the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be re- moved from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."