The Constitution lists three categories of impeachable offenses for a president: treason, bribery, and “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”1Legal Information Institute. Article II, U.S. Constitution The first two are narrowly defined. The third is deliberately broad and covers serious misconduct in office, whether or not the conduct violates any criminal statute. Every presidential impeachment in American history has been built on that third category.
The Three Categories in the Constitution
Article II, Section 4 says the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”1Legal Information Institute. Article II, U.S. Constitution
Treason has its own constitutional definition in Article III, Section 3: waging war against the United States, or supporting its enemies by providing them aid and comfort. A treason conviction requires either testimony from two witnesses to the same overt act or a confession in open court.2Legal Information Institute. Treason Clause – Doctrine and Practice It has never been charged in a presidential impeachment.
Bribery under federal law covers offering or accepting anything of value to influence an official act.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 201 – Bribery of Public Officials and Witnesses Like treason, it has never been the sole basis for a presidential impeachment, though it has come up in impeachments of federal judges.
The framers named those two because they saw them as the clearest threats to the republic. Then they added the open-ended catch-all, borrowed from English parliamentary practice, that has done nearly all of the work in presidential cases.
What “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” Means
Two things about this phrase catch people off guard.
First, it does not require a violation of any criminal statute. Impeachment is a political remedy for misconduct in office, not a criminal prosecution. Legal scholars at the founding noted that many purely political offenses fell within impeachment’s reach despite not appearing in any criminal code, and that the range of potential abuses was too varied to catalog in advance.4Cornell Law School. Overview of Impeachable Offenses
Second, “high” does not mean severe. It refers to the elevated nature of the office. These are offenses committed by someone holding public trust, using the powers of that position. Congressional practice has treated three types of conduct as the core of the category:
- Abuse of power — using the authority of the presidency for personal or political gain rather than the public interest.
- Conduct incompatible with the office — actions so contrary to the purpose of the presidency that they undermine the office itself.
- Misuse of office for improper personal gain — leveraging presidential authority for corrupt benefit.
These categories come from the full history of congressional impeachments, not just presidential ones.4Cornell Law School. Overview of Impeachable Offenses The through-line is a betrayal of the constitutional responsibilities of the office.
What Congress Has Actually Charged
The clearest evidence of what counts as impeachable comes from the four sets of presidential impeachment proceedings Congress has produced. Each ended in acquittal, but the charges themselves show how the standard has been applied.5U.S. Senate. Impeachment Cases
Andrew Johnson, 1868
The House approved eleven articles against Johnson. Nine centered on his removal of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in alleged violation of the Tenure of Office Act, a statute that required Senate approval before the president could dismiss certain cabinet members. The remaining articles charged Johnson with bringing Congress into disrepute through inflammatory public speeches and denying the legitimacy of the Reconstruction-era Congress. The Senate acquitted by a single vote on the key articles.
Richard Nixon, 1974
The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles against Nixon before he resigned and the full House ever voted. The charges were obstruction of justice for his role in covering up the Watergate break-in, abuse of power for using federal agencies like the IRS and FBI against political opponents, and contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with committee subpoenas for documents and recordings. Nixon’s case set the template modern proceedings tend to follow: obstruction, abuse of official power, and defiance of congressional oversight.
Bill Clinton, 1998
The House approved two articles against Clinton. The first charged perjury before a grand jury regarding his relationship with a White House intern and his efforts to conceal it. The second charged obstruction of justice tied to both a civil lawsuit and the grand jury investigation.6Justia. The Clinton Impeachments The Judiciary Committee had also approved articles for perjury in the civil case and for abuse of office, but the full House rejected both. The Senate acquitted on the two articles that went to trial.
Donald Trump, 2019 and 2021
Trump is the only president impeached twice. In December 2019, the House charged him with abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine to announce investigations that would benefit him politically, allegedly conditioning $391 million in military aid and a White House visit on that announcement. A second article charged obstruction of Congress for directing executive branch officials to defy subpoenas and withhold documents.7Congress.gov. H.Res.755 – Impeaching Donald John Trump The Senate acquitted in February 2020.
In January 2021, the House impeached him a second time on a single article: incitement of insurrection, following the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Seven Republican senators voted to convict, the most bipartisan presidential impeachment vote in history, but the total fell short of the two-thirds needed and Trump was acquitted.5U.S. Senate. Impeachment Cases
Read together, these cases show what Congress has treated as serious enough for articles: obstruction of investigations, misuse of executive branch power against political opponents, pressuring a foreign government for personal political benefit, defying congressional subpoenas, perjury, and incitement of an attack on the seat of government. None of the acquittals reversed the underlying judgment that these were the kinds of allegations warranting a trial.
What Is Not Impeachable
The standard does not reach policy disagreements, political unpopularity, or personal conduct unconnected to the duties of office. A president who makes bad decisions is not impeachable for that reason alone. The misconduct has to amount to a betrayal of the constitutional responsibilities of the office, which is why the recurring themes across actual impeachments are abuse of power, obstruction, and defiance of the other branches rather than unpopular policy choices.
Who Decides What Qualifies
No court reviews whether Congress got it right. The Supreme Court ruled in Nixon v. United States (1993) that impeachment is a nonjusticiable political question, meaning the judiciary will not second-guess the Senate’s procedures or conclusions.8Legal Information Institute. Nixon v. United States, 506 U.S. 224 That makes Congress the sole interpreter of what “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” means in practice. The definition is not fixed in a statute or a court opinion. It is whatever a majority of the House is willing to charge and two-thirds of the Senate is willing to convict on, and as a practical matter that shifts with the composition and political will of each Congress.