Impeachment And Removal

The Text

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

What It Says

Federal officers including the President can be removed for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Removal from office is the remedy, not criminal punishment.

What It Protects Against

An officeholder who cannot be reached until the next election. Impeachment exists so that a fixed term is not a guarantee of immunity for the duration of it.

Sourced to a ratification-era document. See Contemporaneous Defense below.

Problem Addressed

The Convention rejected making the executive removable at the legislature’s pleasure, which would have made him dependent on Congress, and instead tied removal to specified offenses.

Contemporaneous Defense

Federalist No. 65 described impeachable offenses as those which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or in other words from the abuse or violation of some public trust, and treated the process as political in nature rather than criminal.