On December 18, 2019, at around 7: 00 AM IST, the United States (US) House of Representatives voted on Trump, to impeach him from the office of the President, in 2 formal charges, under House Resolution 755 as follows:
- High crimes and
- Misdemeanors
With these 2 charges, the house passed a resolution of 2 articles to impeachment as follows:
- Abuse of power by soliciting the interference of Ukraine in the 2020 US presidential election (In short – Abuse of power) and
- Obstruction of Congress by directing defiance of certain subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives (In sort – Obstruction of Congress)
With a 12-hour-long debate on both sides of the two parties, Democratic and Republican, the house has approved the resolution and passed the 2 articles of impeachment. The voting on agreeing to 2 articles of impeachment are as follows:
Donald Trump is the third person in the history of the US presidency to be impeached by the House of Representatives, after the two presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
The Charges Against Trump
The impeachment comes after an investigation by House lawmakers, which was set into motion by an anonymous whistleblower complaint from a CIA official. Trump has been accused of making a phone call on July 25, 2019, with Mr. Volodymur Oleksandrovych Zelensky, President of Ukraine. Trump allegedly pressured him to investigate Joe Biden, former vice president of the USA, who is one of the frontrunners to take him on in next year’s 2020 US presidential election.
Trump was seriously considering blocking the congressionally approved, humanitarian aid, to Ukraine. Allegedly, he is also refusing to co-operate with the impeachment inquiry, under Congress, by withholding documentary evidence and barring his key aides from giving evidence to the two committees:
- The House Permanent Select Committees on Intelligence and
- The Committee on the Judiciary.
What To Expect Next?
Now, the House of Representatives will move the impeachment to trial in the Senate, to permanently remove Donald Trump from the constitutional post of presidency. In the Senate, it is likely that he will get fewer voters to remove him from the office of the presidency, due to a majority number of Republicans. However, in history, he will be recorded as the third person to be discussed on the list of the number of Presidents impeached in the US.