On Tuesday, Democrats in the House of Representatives released articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. But this is just the beginning. There’s still several more steps to the impeachment process, says Jeffrey A. Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.
Engel says even a successful impeachment vote by the House is not the same as removing the president from office.
“The articles of impeachment that are now being drawn up by the [House] Judiciary Committee will have to be voted out of committee,” Engel says.
Since Democrats have the majority on the committee, Engel expects the vote to occur along party lines.
“Then it goes to the full House next week for debate,” he says.
The Republican-controlled Senate will likely begin an impeachment trial in early January.
Engel says Republicans and Democrats are not using the same set of facts when it come to impeachment proceedings.
“What’s fascinating is that Republicans on the [Judiciary] Committee are essentially arguing a different set of evidence, arguing a different set of facts,” he says.
He says that’s different than what happened in the Nixon and Clinton impeachment cases, when both sides worked to review the evidence presented and came to a joint conclusion.
Written by Shelly Brisbin.
