Everything you need to know about Trump's impeachment process: what's happened, who the players are, and what comes next

Grace PanettaNov 11, 2019, 20:23 IST

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Monroe, LouisianaReuters

Donald Trump's presidency has been upended by an explosive whistleblower complaint that has since snowballed into a fast-moving impeachment inquiry.
The scandal has ensnared dozens of people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and poses the most immediate threat to Trump's presidency yet.
What is impeachment? How did we get here? And what could happen next?
We hope this guide will help to answer these questions. There's even a table of contents below so you can jump to a specific section.
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Donald Trump's presidency has been upended by an explosive whistleblower complaint that has since snowballed into a fast-moving impeachment inquiry, ensnared dozens of people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and poses the most immediate threat to Trump's presidency yet.

What is impeachment? Contrary to popular belief, impeachment doesn't mean automatic removal from office. The impeachment process can be thought of as somewhat analogous to a criminal proceeding, even though impeachable offenses don't have to be criminal offenses. The House, like a grand jury, collects evidence, hears testimony, and drafts articles of impeachment, or charges, against the President.

If a majority of the House votes to charge the president, the US Senate holds a trial where both sides present their cases and senators act as jurors. If two-thirds of the Senate votes to convict the president on the charges passed by the House, the president is removed from office.

How did we get here? And what could happen next? We hope this guide will help to answer these questions. We highly recommend you read the entirety of this story so you can be as informed as possible, but we've also built a table of contents below so you can jump to a specific section.

The Players

The Stakes

The Possible Outcomes

Timeline of Events (What's Happened So Far)

See Everything you need to know about Trump's impeachment process: what's happened, who the players are, and what comes next >>

First, here's a 60-second explanation of what's going on:

In early September, an anonymous whistleblower complaint lodged by a member of the intelligence community said that in a series of events culminating in a July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump used "the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election."

The complaint detailed concerns how Trump used the call with Zelensky to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son days after withholding a nearly $400 million military-aid package.

Biden's son, Hunter, served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian oil and gas company, from 2014 to 2019. Trump and his allies have falsely accused Biden of using his power as vice president to urge Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma in order to protect Hunter.

The whistleblower's complaint has been corroborated by the White House's summary notes of the July 25 call, White House officials themselves, and the sworn testimony of several career diplomatic and national-security officials.

Multiple diplomats have now testified under oath that the Trump administration explicitly conditioned lifting the hold of the military aid to Ukraine on Zelensky publicly announcing investigations into Burisma and a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to benefit Hillary Clinton.

The Players

Here are the key players broken down by group. Click on their names to learn more about their role in the Trump-Ukraine scandal and impeachment inquiry:

White House officials:
- President Donald Trump, who asked Zelensky to do him "a favor, though" by asking for an investigation into Burisma and the 2016 election.
- Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump used as a conduit to further get the message across to Ukraine that they needed to investigate corruption to get US support.
- Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who undermined Trump's entire impeachment defense by admitting the administration withheld the aid in exchange for investigations into the DNC server.
- White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who is the White House's first line of legal defense against the impeachment inquiry.
- Army foreign area officer Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an Eastern European affairs expert on the NSC who listened to the the July 25 call and raised concerns about it to his superiors.
Current and former Trump administration officials:
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was also on the July 25 call with Ukraine. In addition to misrepresenting his involvement in the matter, Pompeo is also accused of obstructing congressional investigations into it.
- Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who reportedly pushed back on the idea of conditioning assistance to Ukraine for investigations and could testify before Congress soon.
- Attorney General William Barr, who Trump entangled in the impeachment inquiry by asking Ukraine to work with Barr on corruption investigations and requesting Barr hold a press conference clearing Trump of wrongdoing.
- Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who Trump tried to blame for the Ukraine call after the fact. Perry will be leaving the administration at the end of this year.
Intelligence community officials:
- Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, who transmitted the whistleblower complaint to Congress and was the first witness to testify publicly about its contents.
- Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who the whistleblower initially filed their complaint to.
- The anonymous whistleblower.
Current and former diplomats:
- Former US Special Representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who gave critical testimony about the extent of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's involvement in the Trump-Ukraine saga to Congress.
- US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, a Trump appointee who testified that the pressure on Ukraine to investigate the Bidens was "insidious," and he believed to be at least improper, if not illegal.
- Acting ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, a Vietnam veteran and career diplomat who gave explosive and damning testimony to Congress that it was his "clear understanding" that "security assistance money would not come until [Zelensky] committed to pursue the investigation"
- Former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a career diplomat who testified that Trump and Giuliani pushed her out of her position for standing in the way of their efforts to compel Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Ukrainians:
- President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian and first-time president who was elected this April on a platform of cleaning up Ukraine's notorious culture of corruption.
- Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and former Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, who were involved in the investigations into Burisma Holdings.
Members of Congress:
- House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff is the lead person taking charge of the impeachment inquiry, subpoenaing witnesses, and holding hearings.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is guiding the trajectory of the impeachment inquiry in the House and recently called the vote for a resolution to formalize the terms of the inquiry's public phase.
- Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would set the agenda for an impeachment trial in the US Senate.
Others:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who ran point on US-Ukraine relations while serving in President Barack Obama's administration.
- Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's eldest son who served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings from 2014 to 2019.
- Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney who served as an unofficial envoy to Ukraine and roped various diplomats into his efforts to demand that Ukraine investigate the Bidens and 2016, and is now under federal investigation.
- Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two business associates of Giuliani's who were recently charged with federal campaign finance regulations in connection with their Ukrainian lobbying work. Parnas is now cooperating with the impeachment inquiry.

The Stakes

Asking a foreign government for material campaign aid is not only unprecedented from a US president, but it could even violate campaign finance laws against soliciting campaign contributions or help from foreign nationals.

If Trump did, in fact, use military aid as a bargaining chip, as many officials have testified under oath, he could also be impeached on charges of extortion, bribery, and misappropriation of taxpayer funds.

Trump's White House and administration have also refused to comply with many aspects of the inquiry and have attempted to block multiple administration officials from testifying, meaning Trump could also face an impeachment charge for obstructing Congress.

Beyond the immediate threat to Trump and those in his inner orbit, the Trump-Ukraine scandal could have lasting geopolitical consequences that reverberate for years to come.

Ukraine is highly dependent on American military aid to defend itself from incursions from Russia. Ukraine has been engaged in a hot war with Russia — a US adversary — since 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed the peninsula of Crimea, a contested territory.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a top expert for Eastern European affairs on the National Security Council, expressed concern about the military and political implications of the administration withholding the aid in his testimony to Congress.

Acting ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor also testified that the US withholding aid and signaling less support for Ukraine could further embolden Russia to take more aggressive military action and contribute to the further destabilization of the region.

The Possible Outcomes

On October 31, the House voted to approve a formal resolution outlying the terms and parameters of its inquiry, but is still in the fact-finding stage of the process, hearing witness testimony and reviewing documents related to the inquiry.

The impeachment process begins in the House Judiciary Committee, which draws up articles of impeachment based on the results of the inquiry.

The House hasn't yet determined whether they'll limit the scope of the inquiry to the allegations raised in the whistleblower complaint and corroborated by administration officials, or if they'll include articles related to obstruction of congressional investigations.

If the committee passes the articles of impeachment by a majority, they go to the full floor of the House of Representatives and require a simple majority vote of 218 members to pass. Members vote on each article individually, meaning Trump could be impeached on some articles but not others.

Former President Bill Clinton, for example, was impeached on articles of perjury to a grand jury and obstruction of justice, but he was cleared on a separate perjury-related article and a charge of abusing his office. In January of 1999, the US Senate acquitted Clinton on both charges.

In order for Trump to be removed from office, two-thirds of the US Senate — 67 members — have to vote to convict him of those articles of impeachment. Currently, the Senate consists of 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats, and two independents who caucus with Democrats.

If Trump is not impeached at all or impeached but not convicted in the Senate, he stays in office and it'll be left up to the American people to either re-elect him, or vote him out of office in 2020.