Three presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump twice, in 2019 and 2021. The Senate acquitted all three. A fourth president, Richard Nixon, resigned in 1974 after the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment but before the full House voted, so he is not counted among the presidents who have been impeached. No president has ever been convicted by the Senate or removed from office through impeachment. Trump remains the only president impeached twice.
What Impeachment Actually Means
Impeachment is the formal charging step, roughly the equivalent of an indictment. The House has the sole power to impeach, and a simple majority is enough. The Senate then holds a trial, and conviction requires a two-thirds vote.1Cornell Law School. Impeachment and Removal from Office: Overview When a president is on trial, the Chief Justice of the United States presides.2Legal Information Institute (LII). Senate Practices in Impeachment House members called “managers” present the case, and senators act as judge and jury.3U.S. Senate. About Impeachment
The Constitution lists the grounds as “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” That final phrase has no fixed legal definition, and Congress has treated it as reaching beyond ordinary crimes to serious abuses of power and neglect of duty.4Library of Congress. ArtII.S4.1 Overview of Impeachment Clause In practice, what counts is a political judgment Congress makes, not something courts review.
Andrew Johnson, 1868
Johnson, a Democrat who became president after Lincoln’s assassination, spent years fighting the Republican-controlled Congress over Reconstruction.5U.S. Senate. Impeachment Trial of President Andrew Johnson, 1868 The trigger for impeachment was the Tenure of Office Act of 1867, which barred the president from firing cabinet officers without Senate consent. Johnson tested the law by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The House responded with eleven articles of impeachment.6U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. Impeachment Ballot Recording Votes of Senators in the Trial of Andrew Johnson, May 1868
Chief Justice Salmon Chase presided over the Senate trial. Senators voted on three of the eleven articles, and each one produced the same tally: 35 guilty, 19 not guilty. That was one vote short of the two-thirds needed to convict.5U.S. Senate. Impeachment Trial of President Andrew Johnson, 1868 Johnson was acquitted and finished the remaining ten months of his term.
Richard Nixon, 1974: Not Impeached
Nixon is often lumped in with impeached presidents, but he was not one. He resigned before the full House voted on articles.
The Watergate scandal, which began with a 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters, grew into a broad investigation of White House misconduct. The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice (27–11), abuse of power (28–10), and contempt of Congress (21–17).7Cornell Law Institute. Impeachable Offenses: Effort to Impeach Richard Nixon After the Supreme Court forced release of the White House tapes, Nixon’s political support collapsed. He resigned on August 9, 1974.
A month later, President Gerald Ford issued Nixon “a full, free and absolute pardon” covering any federal offenses he had committed or might have committed as president.8Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. Nixon Pardon Nixon accepted, which protected him from criminal prosecution.
Bill Clinton, 1998
Clinton’s impeachment grew out of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by Paula Jones. During a deposition in that case, Clinton denied a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, who had originally been investigating an unrelated land deal, gathered evidence that Clinton had lied under oath and may have encouraged Lewinsky to lie as well. Starr sent Congress a report laying out grounds for impeachment.
The House approved two of four proposed articles in December 1998: perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice. Two other proposed articles, a second perjury count and an abuse of power count, failed.9Cornell Law Institute. Impeachable Offenses: Impeachment of Bill Clinton
Chief Justice William Rehnquist presided over the Senate trial. On February 12, 1999, the perjury article failed 45 guilty to 55 not guilty, and the obstruction article split 50–50. Both fell far short of the 67 votes needed.9Cornell Law Institute. Impeachable Offenses: Impeachment of Bill Clinton Clinton served out his second term.
Donald Trump, 2019 and 2021
First Impeachment: Ukraine
Trump’s first impeachment focused on his attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating a political rival during the 2020 campaign. On December 18, 2019, the House approved two articles: abuse of power, 230–197, and obstruction of Congress, 229–198.10Encyclopedia Britannica. Which U.S. Presidents Have Been Impeached? The obstruction charge was tied to Trump’s blanket refusal to cooperate with the House investigation, including blocking witness testimony and withholding documents.
In February 2020, the Senate acquitted him. The abuse of power article failed 48 guilty to 52 not guilty. The obstruction of Congress article failed 47 guilty to 53 not guilty.10Encyclopedia Britannica. Which U.S. Presidents Have Been Impeached? Senator Mitt Romney became the first senator ever to vote to convict a president of his own party.
Second Impeachment: January 6
Trump’s second impeachment came one week before his term ended. On January 13, 2021, the House voted 232–197 to charge him with a single article, incitement of insurrection, tied to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.11Constitution Center. The Second Trump Impeachment: What Happens Next? Ten Republicans joined every Democrat, making it the most bipartisan impeachment vote to that point.
Because Trump left office on January 20, the Senate trial did not begin until February. That raised a threshold question of whether the Senate could try a former president. The Senate voted 56–44 that it had jurisdiction, on the reasoning that a president impeached while still in office could be tried after leaving.12U.S. Senator Susan Collins. Senator Collins’ Statement on Impeachment Trial Jurisdiction
On February 13, 2021, the Senate voted 57 guilty to 43 not guilty. Seven Republican senators voted to convict, making it the most bipartisan conviction vote in any presidential impeachment trial, but the tally still fell ten votes short of the required 67.13U.S. Senate. U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress – 1st Session Trump was acquitted.
Why the Senate Has Never Convicted
Sixty-seven senators must vote guilty to convict. That means at least some members of the president’s own party have to cross over, and in every presidential trial partisan loyalty has held enough senators in line to prevent it. Johnson’s acquittal by a single vote in 1868 is still the closest any Senate has come.
The same pattern runs through all four cases. The House, where a simple majority is enough, has been willing to impeach along largely partisan lines. The Senate, where the threshold is far higher, has never assembled the votes to finish the job.