Chapter 7: The Presidency
4/5/99

Finally, after months spent investigating President Clinton at a cost of millions of dollars, the Senate trial that took 37 days came to an end. The Senate voted to acquit the President on the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Thus, President Clinton became the second president in our nation's history to be impeached by the House of Representatives and then not removed from office by the Senate. President Clinton is the first elected president to have been impeached and tried by the Senate.

For more information about the conduct of the impeachment trial and the Senate's final votes go to OnLine NewsHour: The Impeachment Trial at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/impeachment/hearings.html.

1/14/99

On December 19, 1998, President Clinton became the first elected President in the history of the nation to be impeached by the House of Representatives. The House voted on four Articles of Impeachment, approving two of them by a majority vote along essentially partisan lines. The two approved Articles of Impeachment charge the President with committing perjury before a federal grand jury and obstructing justice by persuading others to lie before the grand jury. This means that only for the second time in our history will the Senate be called upon to try a president in an impeachment proceeding. The first time involved President Andrew Johnson who as vice-president succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Lincoln.

For further information about the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, you can go to the Clinton Impeachment Resource Center web site.

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