Donald Trump is impeached: Latest news from the inquiry, explained

Donald Trump impeachment
Donald Trump reacts to news of his impeachment during a campaign rally in Michigan yesterday. Credit: Reuters

Donald Trump suffered the embarrassment of becoming only the third US president in history to be impeached in December, but a trial to decide whether he should be removed from office still lies ahead. 

In what is set to be a blockbuster trial, the Senate's 100 members will debate whether Mr Trump's actions in the Ukraine scandal merit hit removal from office. 

The proceedings are expected to begin in earnest on Tuesday and could last for several weeks. A lengthy trial would overshadow the Democratic presidential nomination race, with the first votes cast in Iowa on February 3.

The Senate will ultimately vote on the two articles of impeachment passed by the House - one charging him with abuse of power, the other with obstructing Congress.

Mr Trump has pushed back on the accusations against him and called for a speedy Senate vote to dismiss the case against him.

But a handful of Republican senators have broken rank to say a number of witnesses should be called to testify in the trial, leaving the time frame for the proceedings still in doubt.

The historic events of the last few months have plunged America's lawmakers into uncharted waters, testing anew the nation's constitutional system.

The looming Senate trial also adds to the uncertainty already hanging over the 2020 election campaign, with the unprecedented circumstance of an impeached president fighting for re-election and several Democratic candidates acting as jurors in the case against Mr Trump. 

We answer the major questions thrown up by the extraordinary situation in which we now find ourselves.

What is impeachment and has it happened before?

Impeachment is the process of removing a government official - in this case Donald Trump, the US president - from office. To trigger the process, an inquiry looks at whether the official's conduct falls under "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours”, as stated in Article Two of the US Constitution. 

Where things get tricky is the Constitution does not define "high crimes and misdemeanours", so Congress must decide for itself what constitutes an impeachable offence. However, it is generally understood to mean a violation of an oath of office, rather than necessarily breaking the law.

Richard Nixon resigned before an impeachment vote could be held Credit: AP

Only three other presidents have faced an impeachment inquiry - Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

In 1868, Mr Johnson was impeached by the House on charges relating to violating the Tenure of Office Act, over his firing of his Secretary of War, but he was acquitted in the Senate. After the 1974 Watergate scandal, a House committee approved articles of impeachment against Mr Nixon, but he resigned before the full House held a vote. Mr Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice relating to a sexual harassment case against him but was then acquitted in the Senate. 

No president has ever been formally removed by the Senate. 

What is the Ukraine scandal at the heart of the inquiry? 

At the heart of the issue is whether Mr Trump held back aid to Ukraine in a bid to pressure the country to investigate his political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Mr Biden, the former US vice president, is currently the Democratic front-runner in the race to challenge Mr Trump for the White House in 2020. 

The trigger for the impeachment investigation was a phone call between Mr Trump and the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Concerns about the phone call were first revealed after a whistleblower filed a complaint accusing the president of abusing his power in order to interfere in the 2020 election.

The impeachment probe centres on a call between President Zelenskiy and Mr Trump  Credit: AFP

The whistleblower, a CIA officer previously assigned to the White House, said several officials had raised concerns about Mr Trump's conversation with Mr Zelenskiy. In response, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in late September that the chamber would open a formal impeachment proceeding to investigate the claims. 

A day after the impeachment investigation began, the White House released a redacted version of the phone call which revealed that Mr Trump had indeed urged Mr Zelenskiy to do him a "favour" and investigate the Bidens. 

Overshadowing the request was the fact that it came days after Mr Trump held back almost $400 million in military aid that Congress had approved for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia. Mr Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong in calling for the investigation, saying there was no "quid pro quo" in his dealings with Ukraine.

Why was Mr Trump calling for an investigation into the Bidens?

Mr Trump and his allies have repeatedly suggested that while he was vice president, Mr Biden pushed for Ukraine's then prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, to be fired because he had been investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company where his son Hunter held a lucrative board position.

The Bidens have vehemently denied any wrongdoing and in fact Mr Biden was not alone in calling for Mr Shokin's removal. The US government was backed by several European allies and the International Monetary Fund in criticising Mr Shokin for failing to tackle corruption, including in his own office.

Mr Trump and others have also repeated an unfounded conspiracy theory that Ukraine is in possession of a server containing hacked Democratic Party emails. 

Joe Biden and his son Hunter have vehemently denied any wrongdoing Credit: AP

During the impeachment investigation, several key witnesses have given evidence revealing they had raised concerns about a shadow foreign policy being waged through Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to advance the president's own political agenda.

An impeachment report by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, where the investigation public proceedings began, concluded that Mr Trump personally oversaw the attempt to get Ukraine to launch politically helpful investigations, abusing presidential powers for his own gain. 

In the 300-page report, Mr Trump is also accused of attempting to “conceal” his behaviour from the public once the scandal came to light by withholding key documents despite subpoenas and “intimidating, threatening and tampering with” prospective witnesses. 

How does the impeachment process work? 

A House committee conducts an investigation into the accusations and then decides whether to proceed with drawing up articles of impeachment. The Judiciary Committee votes on the articles before they are put to a vote of the full 435-member House of Representatives. A simple majority - 218 votes - is required to impeach a president. The articles must then be sent to the Senate for a trial to decide whether to convict and remove the president. Two-thirds of the Senate must vote in support to carry the motion. 

Ahead of the vote to impeach Mr Trump, the Judiciary Committee, led by chairman Jerry Nadler, called three constitutional scholars to testify before them. They said Mr Trump's actions threatened to re-establish a "king on American soil" and he should be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors". However, a fourth legal expert, selected by Republicans, said the impeachment case against Mr Trump was the "thinnest" ever, was "slipshod," and would create a "dangerous precedent" for future presidents.

The White House refused to co-operate with the probe, calling it a "sham", but several current and former officials defied that edict to appear before investigators.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Credit: Susan Walsh/AP

Democrats ultimately brought two articles of impeachment against Mr Trump, with the vote held on December 18. The result was largely along party lines. Article one, abuse of power, passed with 230 votes to 197. Two Democrats voted against it. Article two, obstruction of Congress, passed with 229 votes to 197. Three Democrats voted against. 

Ms Pelosi delayed sending the articles to the Senate for several weeks, in the hope of negotiating with the Senate's Republican leadership for what she called a "fair trial" in the Senate, but ultimately relented. On January 15, the House finally voted by 228 to 193 to send across the two articles to the Senate. At a press conference earlier in the day Ms Pelosi announced the seven Democratic congressmen who will make the case for the prosecution in the Senate, led by Adam Schiff of California, a former US attorney. 

What happens next?

After a string of procedural measures, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, was sworn in to preside over the trial. All 100 senators were also sworn in with an oath to administer “impartial justice” and act like a jury. 

The Democratic impeachment managers will spend the first day or two laying out their case. Mr Trump's team will then have the same amount of time to mount their defence, the first time the public will have heard the president's rebuttal. 

Mr Trump’s defence will be put forward primarily by his lawyers. Pat Cipollone, who has fought impeachment as White House counsel, will take the lead. Jay Sekulow, who has represented Mr Trump for years, is also expected to play a part.

Many of the procedural rules are still to be determined, especially on whether witnesses and new evidence will be put forward. The Democrats want John Bolton, Mr Trump’s former national security adviser, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, to be called, believing the men could have firsthand evidence on the president's thinking at the time of the scandal. 

But some Republicans have threatened to call either Mr Biden or his son Hunter Biden, whose role working for a Ukrainian gas company Mr Trump wanted probed, to appear. 

Two thirds of the Senate must find Mr Trump guilty in order for him to be convicted and removed from office. In such an event, the vice president becomes president.  

What does the country think about impeaching Trump?

For Mr Trump's first two years in office, the majority of the American public appeared to be against impeachment. That appears to have changed in the wake of the Ukraine scandal. 

Since the impeachment inquiry began, multiple polls, including one by the conservative network Fox News, have showed more of the public now favour an impeachment inquiry than oppose it. But it is a slim margin and there is a danger for Democrats that if the investigation drags on too long and becomes too complex, public mood will shift again. 

Democrats competing to be the party's presidential candidate are also concerned about having the issue hanging over an election year. 

So will Trump really be impeached and removed? 

In short, it seems pretty unlikely Mr Trump will be booted out of the White House. While Mr Trump has been impeached by the House, where Democrats enjoy a majority, he is unlikely to be convicted by the Senate. 

The Republican Party holds a 53-47 majority in the Senate, which means around 20 senators would have to turn on their own president and vote against him. It would take something major for that to happen.

Mr Trump's approval rating among his base remains strong and Republican voters are overwhelmingly against impeachment so senators are wary of going against his supporters, particularly with the election just a year away. 

There are some cracks in the Republican flank. Senior figures like senator Mitt Romney called the incident "deeply troubling" and former Ohio governor John Kasich said it made him "sick to my stomach".

But by and large Republicans in the House and the Senate have remained tight lipped -  acutely aware that voters in their home districts remain loyal to the president.

The Republican senators to watch

No Republican senator has publicly said they will back Mr Trump's removal, but there is intense focus on a number of names based on comments they have made since the scandal broke. Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney appear open to allowing witnesses to testify in the trial, going against the Republican leadership.