Only three times in the 226 year history of the office of the President of the United States has the idea of impeachment reared its head. Only twice has a president been impeached, and only one president has been driven out of office due to possible high crimes and misdemeanors. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton both were impeached by the House of Representatives, and faced trial in the Senate. Both presidents were acquitted of their supposed transgressions, and were allowed to remain in office. Richard Nixon, despite never experiencing impeachment, vacated his office due to increasing pressure to resign and spare the Senate from going through the process due to his obvious guilt. Nixon was actually in violation of his duties as President, but Clinton and Johnson were impeached by political rivals. Nixon’s actions were considered in such grave violation of the Constitution, that he did not keep his office, whereas Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton stayed. Impeachment is “ a criminal proceeding instituted against a public official by a legislative body.” (Impeachment). This does not mean automatic removal from office, which is a common misconception. the article goes on to explain how in the United States, the reason impeachment is so rare at the presidential level is because it is quite a long process and keep the Congress occupied for months; due to this impeachment in only employed in the gravest of circumstances. Furthermore, it is not just presidents or federal officials who can be impeached, as 49 states (all but Oregon) have an impeachment procedure in place. Impeachment is considered to be an important part of the checks and balances that make the US government unique, however due to the complicated and time consuming process it is. The first ever use of the impeachment power occurred in 1868, when Andrew Johnson was impeached. Johnson was already
Through all the years of American history only two presidents have been impeached. The two who were impeached were Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. Bill Clinton was elected president in November 3, 1992 after serving as Governor of Arkansas. Andrew Johnson was elected president in April 15, 1865 after Lincoln’s assassination. The two impeachments were different in many ways, however Bill Clintons was very unpopular to the public.
“Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law” (The Constitution Article I Section 3). Impeachment is something that doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it is taken very seriously. Impeachment means that basically someone is not doing their job correctly and they have done something to abuse the power and therefore can no longer hold that position anymore. This is one way of removing someone from a position or office without a jury or a debate about it. Stating within the constitution that, “The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury;…” (The Constitution Article III Section 2). This allows the verdict to not be questioned and overthrown. Impeachment is only necessary when a judge does not follow the oath that they have taken and that the judge has made a
When Nixon was inaugurated, he took a sworn oath to protect the people and the country. He lied to his people. He states, “The major problem on the Watergate is simply to clean the thing up by having whoever was responsible admit what happened. Certainly I am satisfied that nobody in the White House had any knowledge or approved any such activity.” (Memoirs 646).
Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act (Amendment) of 1918. On April 2nd 1917, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America,? went before Congress and called for a declaration of war. Both the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of going to war with Germany. This was an act that led to much resistance among the American people.
1. On March 1, 1974 a grand jury returned an indictment charging seven of President Nixon's close aides with various offenses, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and to obstruct justice having to do with the Watergate Affair.
Impeachment is the ultiomate punishment for a president. It is a long and complicated rout to removing a public official from office. The Constitutional process Article II, section 4 specifies the procedures to be used to remove a public official from office(CNN/All Politics). The constitution states that and president found guilty for bribery, treason, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. There has been a long debate on what should be considered a high crime. Different people in the House share different views. Ultimately it is up to the Hose to decide to drop the charges or further the investigation. If the public official is found guilty a two thirds majority vote from the Senate is necessary. The most recent president to face an impeachment hearing was Bill Clinton. A previous case involving Richard Nixon, Watergate, was held in 1974. Rather than facing an embarrassment with impeachment Nixon chose to resign in disgrace.
Out of all of the current presidents in our time the most interesting president to explore was President Richard Nixon and out of all of them he was the only one in term to resign. That Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment to be executed to the fullest extent of their nature. His poor choices and decisions led to his resignation. Although he did have some good qualities in helping the U.S. the bad however override the good. In the CRS (Congressional Research Service) It states: “ Obstruction of justice is the impediment of governmental activities. There are a host of federal criminal laws that prohibit obstructions of justice. The six most general outlaw obstruction of judicial proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1503), witness tampering (18 U.S.C. 1512), witness retaliation (18 U.S.C. 1513), obstruction of Congressional or administrative proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1505), conspiracy to defraud The United States (18 U.S.C. 371), and contempt (a creature of statute, rule and common law). Simple perjury in a federal investigation or judicial proceedings carries an extensive fine and up to 5 years in prison.” This was the first article president Richard M. Nixon was charged with by the House of Judiciary Committee. The vote was 27 to 1 for Nixon to be charged with the first article of impeachment, which was Obstruction of Justice. In denial of his liability in part taking in the Watergate scandal by saying he wasn't involved in the scandal He pointed finger at others that were involved in the break-in. However, tapes were found of conversations that proved his involvement and he was going to be impeached. Before he was charged, he made a resignat...
There was a break-in in 1972 at the Watergate Office Complex of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters and Ronal Reagan was involved. This crime was committed on June 17, 1972 in the very early morning, which will prove that it will be the end for President Nixon. Seven burglars were found inside the Complex and they were arrested inside the DNC, this was a planned out robbery and was linked to to President Nixon’s re-election campaign, the burglars were trying to steal top secret documents and to wiretap the phones. History can't surely say that Nixon took part in this. However, he did take part in covering this up and raising hush money for the burglars, and even trying to stop the FBI from investigating. So in August of 1974, after the conspiracy had become public, President Nixon resigned and was pardoned by Gerald Ford.
One man’s bullet would force him into the presidency, and but for one man’s vote he would have been forced out.
With this many impeachments in the past, not to mention the presidents that resigned before being impeached, this goes to show that Congress really doesnt care if they impeach anybody because they can just find another person. But to us it proves they have too much power because it seems as easy as if they don't like somebody they can just impeach them and move on, but what does that prove? They can just push people around until they find someone to give in and have on their side for their own personal gain. I don't think so, but I think so. We need to be more strict on how Congress can go about impeaching somebody.
...criminal case. On June 23, 1972 the “smoking gun” was recorded in the Oval Office. Many say that this tape almost single handedly caused the end of the Nixon era as President of the US. This tape is referred to as the “smoking gun” because it is direct evidence of criminal guilt. On this tape President Nixon told Bob Haldeman to obstruct justice by having the CIA impede the FBI’s investigation of the Watergate break in (Nixon 848-851). In July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommended that Richard Nixon be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. The committee claimed that Nixon had obstructed justice, abused presidential powers, and withheld evidence in a criminal case. Nixon was forced to release the “smoking gun” on August 5, 1974. On August 8, Richard Nixon issued a statement that he would be resigning as the President of the United States effective at noon on August 9, 1974. Therefore on August 9, Gerald Rudolph Ford became the thirty-eighth President of the United States. Ford immediately pardoned Richard Nixon of any and all federal crimes he may have committed while in office. Richard Milhous Nixon died on April 22, 1994 leaving behind his wife and two daughters.
Nixon was long associated with American politics before his fall from grace. He was along time senator before finally being elected president in 1968. During his first term, his United States went through the Vietnam War and a period of economic inflation. In 1972 he was easily re-elected over Democrat nominee George McGovern. Almost unnoticed during his campaign was the arrest of five men connected with Nixon’s re-election committee. They had broken into the Democrats national head quarters in the Watergate apartment complex, in Washington D.C. They attempted to steal documents and place wire taps on the telephones. By March of 1973, through a federal inquiry, it had been brought to light that the burglars had connections with high government officials and Nixon’s closest aids. Despite Nixon and his lawyers best efforts, it was shown that the president had participated in the Watergate cover-up. On August 8, 1974 Nixon announced, without admitting guilt, that he would resign. He left the Oval Office the next day: an obvious fall from grace.
According to the book “Watergate: Scandal in the White House” by By Dale Anderson it all began on
...cause of what the press, the people and society does to the image if the president. Because Richard Nixon cheated the American people, it caused one giant domino effect of suspicion and distrust among major players in America as a whole. One thing lead to another and now politics is no longer as acclaimed as it once was. Notice now how almost every movie that has anything to do with politics involves some sinister politician wanting to cheat the people. Doubtfully, when the founding fathers set out for a more united government with a qualified leader, they probably were not worried the he or she would be involved in illegal actions. Most importantly, when the American people disrespect the presidency, and are too busy criticizing or ridiculing the actions and behavior of the man holding the office, we no longer unite under him, and then all patriotism is lost.
Lately, the top story in the news day after day, months after months have been about William Jefferson Clinton, also known as Bill. Who could blame them, there is nothing better than a story out of the ordinary, especially one with presidential status. For the past months he has been the most talked about figure, being the essential topic for news, talk shows, late night comedy and even going as far as the big screen. Talk about 'Primary Colors' and 'Wag the Dog.' What has gotten to me the most however, were the constant flow of Republicans, along with a few Democrats, who just want to say how shocked and embarrassed they are along with the people of the United States.The president had not just become the most talked about figure, but also one history had ever seen, so far that is, breaking the record and becoming a topic of conversation and debate 'twenty-four seven.' The people, who I think were most affected by this crisis and feel very sad for, are the Republicans, since they had lost severe amount of sleep over the president's bedroom crisis. They had to perform their republican duties by shocking our brains with the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky. We had to ignore the rest of the world news and its issues while they plough through the valley of lies, abuse of power and something they called high crimes and misdemeanors.