Daily Mail

How he might face wrath of Congress... and be forced out

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THE President could become only the third in US history to face being impeached.

Politician­s would need to decide if he had violated his oath of office to ‘preserve, protect, and defend’ the constituti­on. The process starts with a vote in the House of Representa­tives – the equivalent of Britain’s House of Commons – to pass an Article of Impeachmen­t, which needs only a majority to succeed.

If passed, a trial would be held in the Senate, the upper chamber, with the Chief Justice presiding, and a two-thirds majority is needed to secure a ‘conviction’. It would result in the President being thrown out of office, but this has never happened and both houses of Congress are currently dominated by Mr Trump’s Republican party.

Two previous presidents have been impeached by the House of Representa­tives – Bill Clinton in 1998 on the grounds he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky and Andrew Johnson over a political dispute in 1868 – but both survived after being acquitted at their trials in the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned in 19 4 before impeachmen­t proceeding­s could start following the Watergate scandal.

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