Can President Donald Trump Be Impeached Through Petitions? How The Impeachment Process Works

Since assuming office on Jan. 20, Donald Trump’s presidency has been marred by controversies and petitions. People filed several petitions to impeach the president, urged him to drop the plans to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and save the Environmental Protection Agency under his administration. He also had a petition against him in the U.K. over his state visit slated later this year.

Now the latest one is to investigate the Trump administration for its possible ties to Russia. Started by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York), the petition received nearly four million signatures from people across the country to form a bipartisan and independent commission to probe the president and his administration’s “foreign business conflicts of interest, and violations of federal ethics laws.”

Read: Muslim Ban, Border Wall Spark Petitions To Charge President With Constitutional Violations

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) said the GOP has more members willing to “cover up instead of to open up...and that’s where the role of these petitions becomes so very important.”

“The Trump administration will try to hide behind the bushes or behind the tweets, but the cover-up will be uncovered by people across this country who demand change. Together we can continue to resist,” Doggett said, according to Newsweek.

However, can petitions actually result into Trump’s removal or impeachment? Is he legally obligated to resign after Americans sign petitions for him to do so? The answer is, no. Petitions are only to grab the government’s attention and push it to work on people’s demands. There are no legal consequences due to the petitions.

It is obvious Trump has no plans, for now, to step down from presidency. But, in a bid to oust Trump, members of the House of Representatives are required to vote on one or more articles of impeachment. The U.S. constitution allows a president to be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

On Wednesday, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) said they are drafting articles of impeachment over the president’s decision to dismiss James Comey as FBI Director James.

If at least one of the articles gets a majority vote, Trump will be impeached — meaning indicted. Following this, the proceedings will head to the Senate, which will hold a trial supervised by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. A team comprised of lawmakers from House will serve as prosecutors and the president will have defense lawyers. The Senate will act as the jury. At least two-thirds of the senators should find Trump guilty. If that happens, the president will be ousted and Vice President Mike Pence will take over his place.

Till now, there has never been an impeachment by both the House and Senate. But, some presidents came close to getting impeached. Richard Nixon resigned from his office, making way for Gerald Ford to take office in 1974. And in 1998, Bill Clinton was impeached by the House but not the Senate.