You hear it all the time… Can Trump be impeached for that? Is it an impeachable offense?
Article two, section four of the Constitution states that “[t]he 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.”
Apparently, it was Benjamin Franklin who suggested that all executive officers should be able to be impeached. Their concern was that a single executive would lend itself more to the potential for corruption as opposed to a legislature made up of many individuals, which in some ways, since it cannot act without a majority vote, is self-policing. Thus the specific concern about bribery as stated in the Constitution.
Treason also seems like a valid reason to remove an officer. After all, if you are supposed to be acting on behalf of the citizens of the United States, treason is a particularly serious betrayal.
Other than those two specific charges, the Founding Fathers left the possible bases for impeachment pretty broad. Certainly “high crimes” seems to imply a pretty serious offense, a felony for sure, but misdemeanors include everything all the way down to the modern speeding tickets. Thus, the Founders did not want to exclude possible crimes of any kind that…
