# Trump Impeachments Timeline [[Donald Trump]] is the only U.S. president impeached twice: on **December 18, 2019** over Ukraine, and on **January 13, 2021** over the [[January 6 Capitol Attack]]. The Senate acquitted him both times, on **February 5, 2020** and **February 13, 2021**. Conviction in either trial would have opened a second, simple-majority vote to bar him from future federal office. Neither trial got there, and he returned to the presidency on January 20, 2025. In his second term the House has voted three times on new articles of impeachment. The House tabled all three, while House Republicans pushed in parallel to "expunge" the first two. This page is the dated spine. Procedural detail for each impeachment lives on [[Trump First Impeachment]] and [[Trump Second Impeachment]]. The constitutional machinery both cases ran through is mapped at [[Impeachment and Removal Process Flow]]. The criminal cases built on the same conduct are tracked at [[Trump Indictments Timeline]]. ## At a glance | | First impeachment | Second impeachment | |---|---|---| | Triggering conduct | Holding $391M in Ukraine security aid while pressing [[Volodymyr Zelensky]] to announce investigations of [[Joe Biden]] | The January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and the "fight like hell" Ellipse speech | | Article(s) | I. Abuse of Power; II. Obstruction of Congress | Incitement of Insurrection | | Inquiry to House vote | 85 days (Sept 24 – Dec 18, 2019) | 7 days (Jan 6 – Jan 13, 2021) | | House vote | 230–197 (I); 229–198 (II) | 232–197 | | Republican House yeas | 0 | 10 | | Democratic House nays | 2 on I, 3 on II | 0 | | Lead manager | [[Adam Schiff]] | [[Jamie Raskin]] | | Senate trial | Jan 16 – Feb 5, 2020 | Feb 9 – Feb 13, 2021 | | Presiding officer | Chief Justice [[John Roberts]] | President pro tempore [[Patrick Leahy]] (Trump was no longer the sitting president) | | Witnesses | None: motion failed 49–51 on Jan 31, 2020 | Senate voted 55–45 to allow them on Feb 13, then dropped them the same day in exchange for entering one statement into the record | | Senate verdict | 48 guilty / 52 not guilty (I); 47 / 53 (II) | 57 guilty / 43 not guilty | | Republican senators voting guilty | 1 ([[Mitt Romney]], Article I only) | 7 | | Short of 67 by | 19 (I); 20 (II) | 10 | | Outcome | Acquitted; eligible to run again | Acquitted; eligible to run again; re-elected 2024 | ## Chronology ### Prelude — Mueller and the impeachment that didn't happen (2017 – July 2019) - **2017-05-17** — Robert Mueller is appointed special counsel. See [[Mueller Investigation]]. - **2018-11-06** — Democrats win the House majority in the midterms, which gives them the power to impeach. - **2019-04-18** — The redacted [[Mueller Report]] is released. Volume II lays out about ten episodes of possible obstruction and declines to exonerate Trump, but it makes no charging decision, citing the Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president. [[Nancy Pelosi]] holds off on impeachment. - **2019-07-24** — Mueller testifies before House Judiciary and Intelligence. The hearings do not move the impeachment count. ### First impeachment — Ukraine (July 2019 – February 2020) - **2019-07-18** — An OMB official tells an interagency meeting that the White House has frozen Ukraine's security assistance. The amount is $391M: $250M through the Pentagon and $141M through the State Department. - **2019-07-25** — Trump speaks with Zelensky by phone: "I would like you to do us a favor though." He asks for investigations of the Bidens and of the [[CrowdStrike Conspiracy Theory]], the debunked claim that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the DNC in 2016. See [[Donald Trump - do us a favor though]]. [[Rudy Giuliani]] runs a parallel back channel. - **2019-08-12** — An intelligence-community whistleblower files a complaint with Inspector General [[Michael Atkinson]]. - **2019-09-09** — Atkinson tells the intelligence committees he has received an "urgent concern" complaint that Acting DNI [[Joseph Maguire]] is withholding from Congress. - **2019-09-11** — The aid hold is lifted, two days after the House learned the complaint existed. - **2019-09-13** — [[Adam Schiff]] subpoenas Maguire for the complaint. This is the first public act of the impeachment sequence. - **2019-09-24** — **Pelosi announces a formal impeachment inquiry.** - **2019-09-25** — The White House releases its memorandum of the July 25 call. - **2019-09-26** — The whistleblower complaint is made public. - **2019-10-31** — The House votes 232–196 on H.Res. 660, setting the inquiry's procedures. - **2019-11-13 → 11-21** — Public Intelligence Committee hearings. Witnesses include William Taylor, [[Marie Yovanovitch]], [[Alexander Vindman]], [[Gordon Sondland]] ("Was there a quid pro quo? … the answer is yes") and [[Fiona Hill]]. - **2019-12-03** — The Intelligence Committee releases its impeachment inquiry report. - **2019-12-04** — Judiciary Committee hearing with four constitutional scholars. - **2019-12-13** — House Judiciary approves both articles on party-line votes. - **2019-12-18** — **The House impeaches Trump.** Article I (abuse of power) passes 230–197 and Article II (obstruction of Congress) 229–198. No Republican votes yes. Democrats Collin Peterson and Jeff Van Drew vote no on both articles, and Jared Golden votes no on Article II only. [[Tulsi Gabbard]] votes "present" on both. Van Drew switches to the Republican Party the next day. - **2020-01-15** — The House names seven managers, led by Schiff, and votes to send the articles to the Senate. - **2020-01-16** — Chief Justice [[John Roberts]] is sworn in to preside and senators take the impeachment oath. The same day, the [[Government Accountability Office]] finds the aid hold violated the [[Impoundment Control Act]]. - **2020-01-21** — [[Mitch McConnell]]'s organizing resolution passes on party lines, putting off any decision on witnesses until after opening arguments. - **2020-01-22 → 01-25** — The House managers present their case. - **2020-01-25 → 01-28** — The defense presents: [[Pat Cipollone]], [[Jay Sekulow]], [[Ken Starr]] and [[Alan Dershowitz]]. Dershowitz argues that acts a president takes to win re-election, believing his re-election is in the public interest, cannot be impeachable. - **2020-01-26** — The *New York Times* reports that [[John Bolton]]'s book manuscript says Trump personally tied the aid to the investigations. Pressure for witnesses peaks. - **2020-01-31** — **The witness motion fails 49–51.** Romney and [[Susan Collins]] are the only Republicans to vote yes. - **2020-02-05** — **The Senate acquits.** The vote is 48 guilty to 52 not guilty on Article I and 47 to 53 on Article II. Romney votes guilty on Article I, the first senator in history to vote to convict a president of his own party. ### The year between (February 2020 – January 5, 2021) - **2020-02-07** — Two days after the acquittal, Vindman and his twin brother, an NSC ethics lawyer, are escorted out of the White House, and Sondland is recalled from his EU post. - **2020-04-03** — Trump notifies Congress that he is removing Atkinson, the inspector general who forwarded the whistleblower complaint. - **2020-11-03** — Trump loses to Biden by about 7 million votes and 306–232 in the [[Electoral College]]. - **2020-11 → 2021-01** — The [[Stop the Steal]] campaign: about 60 lawsuits, nearly all lost; the [[Fake Electors Scheme]] in seven states; the [[Eastman Memo]] pressure on [[Mike Pence]]; and a running "stolen election" message on [[Twitter]]. See [[Stop the Steal Timeline]]. - **2021-01-02** — Trump's call with [[Brad Raffensperger]]: "I just want to find 11,780 votes." See [[Donald Trump - find 11780 votes]]. It follows the same pattern as the Zelensky call: Trump asks an official to produce a result for him personally. ### Second impeachment — January 6 (January 6 – February 13, 2021) - **2021-01-06** — At the Ellipse rally Trump tells the crowd to "fight like hell" and march to the Capitol while Congress counts the electoral votes. The [[January 6 Capitol Attack]] follows: Pence and members of Congress are evacuated, about 140 police officers are injured, and five people die during or shortly after the attack. Congress resumes the count that night and certifies Biden's win before 4 a.m. on January 7. - **2021-01-11** — Reps. David Cicilline, Raskin and Ted Lieu introduce a single article, "Incitement of Insurrection." - **2021-01-12** — The House passes a resolution calling on Pence to invoke the [[Twenty-Fifth Amendment]], 223–205. Pence refuses in a letter to Pelosi the same night. Pelosi names nine managers, led by Raskin. - **2021-01-13** — **The House impeaches Trump a second time**, 232–197. All 222 Democrats and 10 Republicans vote yes: [[Liz Cheney]], [[Adam Kinzinger]], [[John Katko]], [[Fred Upton]], [[Jaime Herrera Beutler]], [[Dan Newhouse]], [[Anthony Gonzalez]], [[Tom Rice]], [[David Valadao]] and [[Peter Meijer]]. It is the most bipartisan presidential impeachment vote in U.S. history. McConnell refuses to bring the Senate back before Inauguration Day, so the trial can only happen after Trump leaves office. - **2021-01-20** — Biden is inaugurated. Trump is now a former president, which becomes the basis of the "no jurisdiction" defense. - **2021-01-25** — The managers carry the article to the Senate. - **2021-01-26** — Leahy is sworn in to preside. Rand Paul's point of order that trying a former president is unconstitutional is tabled 55–45; only five Republicans vote to table, signaling early that conviction is out of reach. - **2021-02-09** — The trial opens with video of the attack. The Senate votes 56–44 that the trial is constitutional; six Republicans join the Democrats, with Bill Cassidy switching his vote. - **2021-02-10 → 02-12** — The House managers present their case, then the defense (Bruce Castor, David Schoen and Michael van der Veen) argues jurisdiction and free speech. - **2021-02-13** — The Senate votes **55–45 to allow witnesses**, after Herrera Beutler's account of Trump's call with Kevin McCarthy during the attack. Within hours the two sides agree to enter her statement into the record and call no one. **Final vote: 57 guilty, 43 not guilty**, ten short of conviction. The seven Republicans voting guilty are [[Richard Burr]], [[Bill Cassidy]], [[Susan Collins]], [[Lisa Murkowski]], [[Mitt Romney]], [[Ben Sasse]] and [[Pat Toomey]]. McConnell votes not guilty on jurisdictional grounds, then calls Trump "practically and morally responsible" from the floor. ### The accountability efforts that came after (2021 – 2025) - **2021-06-30** — The House creates the Select Committee on the January 6th Attack, chaired by [[Bennie Thompson]] with Cheney as vice chair. - **2022-08-16** — Cheney loses her Wyoming primary. Of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach, four retire in 2022 and four lose primaries. Only Newhouse and Valadao win re-election that fall. - **2022-11-18** — [[Jack Smith]] is appointed special counsel. - **2022-12-19** — The Select Committee refers Trump to the Justice Department on four criminal charges. Its final report follows on December 22. - **2023-06-22** — [[Marjorie Taylor Greene]] and [[Elise Stefanik]] introduce resolutions to "expunge" the two impeachments. Speaker [[Kevin McCarthy]] endorses them the next day, but they never reach the floor. - **2023-08-01 / 2023-08-14** — Trump is indicted in the federal January 6 case and in the [[Georgia RICO Case]], both of which grow out of the conduct behind the second impeachment. See [[Trump Indictments Timeline]]. - **2024-03-04** — *[[Trump v. Anderson]]*: the Supreme Court holds that states cannot enforce Section 3 of the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] against federal candidates. That closes the disqualification route the second acquittal had left open. - **2024-07-01** — *[[Trump v. United States]]* establishes presidential immunity for official acts and pushes the federal January 6 case past the election. - **2024-11-05** — Trump wins the presidency. - **2024-11-25** — Smith moves to dismiss both federal cases, and both are dismissed without prejudice. - **2025-01-20** — Trump is inaugurated and pardons or commutes the sentences of about 1,500 January 6 defendants. See [[J6 Mass Pardons]]. - **2025-11-26** — The Georgia RICO case is dismissed, and none of the criminal cases tied to the conduct behind either impeachment remains. ### Second term — new articles, tabling votes, and the expungement push (2025 – 2026) The 119th Congress has a Republican House majority, so impeachment in this period is something the minority forces onto the floor and the majority tables. None of these articles has reached a vote on the merits. - **2025-01-09** — Greene reintroduces the paired expungement resolutions. - **2025-05-13** — Rep. Shri Thanedar moves seven articles of impeachment as a privileged resolution, which would force a vote. - **2025-05-14** — Thanedar withdraws the motion hours before the scheduled vote, under pressure from Democratic leaders and from colleagues including Raskin and [[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]]. - **2025-06-24** — **First forced vote.** Rep. [[Al Green]] offers a single article charging abuse of power for the June 2025 U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites without congressional authorization. **Tabled 344–79**, with 128 Democrats voting to table, among them [[Hakeem Jeffries]], [[Katherine Clark]] and [[Pete Aguilar]]. - **2025-12-11** — **Second forced vote.** Green's H.Res. 939 targets Trump's response to six Democratic veterans in Congress who told service members they did not have to follow unlawful orders; Trump had called their video "seditious behavior, punishable by death." See [[Donald Trump - seditious behavior punishable by death]]. **Tabled 237–140, with 47 Democrats voting "present"**: Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar move from tabling to present. 23 Democrats vote to table. - **2026-04-07** — Rep. John Larson files articles over the Iran war and calls on the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. See [[Iran War 2026 Timeline]]. - **2026-04** — Rep. Darrell Issa introduces a resolution to expunge both impeachments. - **2026-06-11 / 06-12** — The *Wall Street Journal* reports that House Republicans are prioritizing expungement. Speaker [[Mike Johnson]] calls the first two "sham impeachments," and Trump backs the effort: "It should be done because I did nothing wrong." Constitutional scholars largely say an impeachment cannot be expunged, which would make such a resolution symbolic. A vote is reported to be unlikely before the midterms. - **2026-08-24** — Green introduces H.Res. 1486, charging abuse of power for letting [[ICE]] and [[CBP]] "operate without accountability." It cites assaults on civilians, unlawful detentions, defiance of courts, and deaths in encounters with federal immigration agents in 2026. - **2026-09-15** — **Third forced vote.** **Tabled 232–147, with 47 voting "present"**: 46 Democrats, including Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar, plus Republican [[Thomas Massie]]. Only 18 Democrats vote to table. The 147 votes against tabling are the most support any impeachment effort has drawn in Trump's second term. - **2026-09-24** — Rep. Steve Cohen introduces 26 articles covering abuse of power, oath violations, corrupt use of the pardon power and the emoluments clauses. As of this writing it has not reached the floor. ## The pattern **1. The remedy worked as far as the House and stopped at the Senate.** Both impeachments charged conduct close to the framers' core meaning of "high crimes and misdemeanors": using public power to extract a personal political benefit, once from a foreign government and once by pressuring the officials counting the votes. The House did its part both times. The Senate's 67-vote bar, in a chamber where party loyalty decides how senators vote, was out of reach both times, even with the largest cross-party defection in impeachment history (7 senators) and the plainest public record possible: a mob on live television. **2. Acquittal taught Trump that the method works.** The Zelensky call (July 25, 2019) and the Raffensperger call (January 2, 2021) run the same play eighteen months apart. Each time Trump asked an official, by phone, for an outcome that would benefit him personally, and the cost fell on the officials and institutions involved. The first acquittal was followed within two days by the removal of Vindman and Sondland and within two months by the removal of Atkinson. It also left the method itself unchallenged. **3. The defectors paid the price; Trump didn't.** Seventeen Republicans broke with Trump on a conviction or impeachment vote: Romney twice, plus the ten House members and seven senators of 2021. By October 2026 only five are still in office, and two of those are leaving. Collins and Murkowski remain. Cassidy finished out of the runoff in his May 16, 2026 Louisiana primary, where the Trump-endorsed [[Julia Letlow]] and John Fleming advanced, and his term ends in January 2027. Newhouse is not seeking re-election. Valadao remains. Burr, Toomey and Sasse left the Senate in 2023 and Romney in 2025. Of the House ten, Cheney, Herrera Beutler, Meijer and Rice lost primaries in 2022, and Kinzinger, Katko, Upton and Gonzalez retired that year. Loyalty to Trump's account of 2020 became the dividing line inside the GOP. **4. Disqualification was the only remedy that mattered, and it was blocked three times.** The two acquittals blocked the Article I, Section 3 disqualification vote, and *[[Trump v. Anderson]]* blocked the Fourteenth Amendment route. McConnell's decision to hold the second trial until after January 20 gave 43 senators a procedural reason to vote not guilty without defending the conduct. In hindsight it may be the most consequential single procedural decision of the period. **5. "Guilty but not convictable."** McConnell's February 13, 2021 posture became the institutional Republican position: concede the conduct was wrong and deny it any constitutional consequence. The same move later framed the party's response to the Select Committee, the Smith cases and the Georgia case. **6. Impeachment has become a message vote in both directions.** In the second term neither side has sought a vote on the merits. The minority forces tabling votes that it knows it will lose, and the majority writes expungement resolutions that most scholars consider legally meaningless. The trend is in how Democrats vote: support for keeping articles alive rose from 79 votes (June 2025) to 140 (December 2025) to 147 (September 2026), and party leadership moved from voting to kill the articles to voting "present." Both sides are using impeachment to stake out positions for the 2026 midterms rather than as an actual attempt at removal. ## See also - [[Trump First Impeachment]] and [[Trump Second Impeachment]] — the granular event pages - [[Impeachment and Removal Process Flow]] — the constitutional machinery, and why neither case ended in removal - [[Clinton Impeachment]] — the previous presidential impeachment; [[Andrew Johnson]] was the first - [[Trump Indictments Timeline]] — the criminal-law route on the same conduct - [[Stop the Steal Timeline]] — the campaign between the two impeachments - [[Trump-Russia Arc Timeline]] — the foreign-influence context for the first impeachment - [[Anti-Trump Resistance Timeline]] — the street and civic side of both impeachments - [[Donald Trump - do us a favor though]] · [[Donald Trump - find 11780 votes]] · [[Donald Trump - seditious behavior punishable by death]] — quote receipts