Democrats have won majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the US midterm elections. This gives the party the chance to start impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump for a third time.
With a majority in the House, Democrats will have the power to open investigations and start impeachment proceedings against the Trump administration. They will also be able to step up oversight of the administration’s actions and limit Trump’s political and legislative power.
Trump had earlier warned that he would veto every bill if Democrats took control of Congress. He said he would veto any proposal the opposition sent him, though there may later be attempts to manage the situation through compromise.
How impeachment works
Under the US Constitution, the sole power to impeach the president lies with the House of Representatives. The process usually begins with an investigation by the committee concerned. If the investigation finds grounds for the charges, formal articles of impeachment are brought to the full House.
The Constitution names three grounds for impeachment: treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanours. If the House passes articles of impeachment by a simple majority, the matter goes to the Senate.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial in the Senate. Convicting the president and removing him from office requires the support of two-thirds of senators present, or 67 votes if all 100 are present. A convicted president must leave office, and the Senate may also decide to bar him from holding public office in future.
What Democrats say about a third impeachment
Asked in September about the possibility of a third impeachment of Trump, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said they were not ruling anything out.
Republican leader Steve Scalise, by contrast, claims that if Democrats win they will move to impeach Trump from day one.
Robert Garcia, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, has said that in power they would focus investigations on the Trump family’s business interests, the Epstein files, the federal government’s role in immigration enforcement, corporate profits and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s vaccine policy.
Companies in the defence technology, manufacturing and minerals sectors linked to the Trump administration could also come under Democratic investigation, The Washington Post reported.
Even if these investigations find charges as serious as grounds for impeachment, Democrats will have to weigh politically whether to take that path in the end.
Trump has been impeached twice before
The House impeached Trump twice in his first term, but both times the charges failed in the Senate.
In 2019 an inquiry began into allegations that he withheld military aid to Ukraine to pressure the country. He was accused of trying to use Ukraine to damage the political prospects of Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate. He denied the allegations.
In December that year the House impeached Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But on February 5, 2020, the Senate acquitted him on both charges. Only Republican Senator Mitt Romney voted to convict him, on the abuse of power charge.
He was impeached a second time over the attack by his supporters on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. In the attack, aimed at stopping the certification of the 2020 election result, one Trump supporter was killed and many police officers were injured.
On January 13, 2021, the House passed an article of impeachment against Trump for incitement of insurrection. Ten Republicans voted for it along with the Democrats.
At the Senate trial in February 2021, 57 senators voted to convict Trump, but he survived as the 67 votes needed were not reached. Seven Republican senators voted against him.
Trump did not lose power despite two impeachments. If Democrats take control of the House in this midterm election, the political and constitutional opening for a third impeachment may arise. But winning the two-thirds support needed in the Senate to remove him from office will remain a big challenge.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report