Articles of Impeachment of Donald J. Trump

The House drafted and approved a single article of impeachment in January 2021, charging the president with “incitement of insurrection” in relation to his false claims of election fraud and the subsequent attempt by his followers to prevent Congress from certifying the election results. The bases for this article were the claims leading up to January 6, the day of the insurrection; Trump’s repeat of them on January 6 to the crowd that then stormed the Capitol; and his phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the president asked him to “find” sufficient votes to overturn the results. On January 13 the House approved the article for impeachment by a vote of 232–197. Ten Republicans voted alongside Democrats in favor. The House officially delivered its article to the Senate on January 25, resulting in Trump being the first U.S. president to be impeached not once but twice. The second impeachment was also the first to take place after a president left office. It was unlikely that it would result in conviction but was significant in that it communicated concerns over the insurrection, expressed the contention that Trump should not hold office again, and led to a national conversation in the public and in law regarding U.S. presidential power and whether the president is above the law.