Past Impeachment Proceedings

While the impeachment proceedings of President Trump are receiving a lot of media attention, he was not the first president to face impeachment trials. Three of our previous presidents have faced impeachment proceedings.President Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, was the first sitting president to face impeachment proceedings. In 1868, President Johnson fired Edwin Stanton, his Secretary of War. According to the Tenure of Office Act of 1867, which prevented a president from firing a cabinet member without the approval of Congress, President Johnson fired Edwin Stanton illegally. Due to high tensions during Reconstruction, President Johnson already was facing heavy opposition in Congress, but he was not impeached, with 35 voting guilty and 19 voting not guilty. President Johnson was saved from impeachment by 1 vote. Although the Tenure of Office Act of 1867 was repealed 20 years later, America would remember the near impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.President Richard Nixon, the nation’s 37th president, was found to have illegally spied on the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters by tapping the office phones and stealing confidential documents. While at first the president maintained he was innocent, several of his staff and a whistle blower at the FBI testified that the president had been involved in the plot. The president tried to cover up his actions by working with the CIA to hamper the FBI’s investigation. When both of these things became public, the House of Representatives began working to charge him with abuse of power and contempt of Congress. However, before he could be impeached, President Richard Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974, making him the only president in history to resign. While Nixon was never impeached, it is likely that he would have been, if he had not resigned.Much more recently, President Bill Clinton faced impeachment proceedings on the grounds of perjury and obstructing justice. In 1998, while President Clinton was being tried in a lawsuit case, he denied, while under oath, that he had had an affair with a White House intern. When incontrovertible evidence of his affair was released, the House of Representatives began impeachment proceedings. On December 11, 1998, the House of Representatives approved impeachment on three grounds - lying to a grand jury, perjury, and obstruction of justice. One week later, the House impeached Clinton for both perjury and obstruction of justice. The Senate acquitted President Clinton in 1999 from both charges, perjury by a vote of 55 to 45 and obstruction of justice by 50 to 50.President Johnson, President Nixon, and President Clinton all faced impeachment proceedings for different things. While none of our presidents have been removed from office, these three set the tone for future impeachment proceedings. When America looks to the past for guidance about current impeachment proceedings, they will be looking at the impeachment proceedings of these three men.