Donald Trump has been impeached once again, with the outgoing US President set to face trial in the upper house of the US Congress after being accused of inciting a deadly riot at the US Capitol building.

The lower house of the US Congress, the House of Representatives, moved to impeach Trump after passing the 218 voting majority needed to do so.

Ten representatives from Trump’s own Republican party voted. to impeach him, with a total of 232 voting for impeachment, and 197 voting against.

Trump was previously impeached and stood trial in early 2020 – but have any other presidents been impeached twice?

Has any US president ever been impeached twice?

The short answer is no – in a historic turn of events, Donald Trump is the first US president ever to face impeachment more than once.

In fact impeachment is so rare that it’s only ever happened to two other US presidents – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

Clinton was impeached in 1998, charged with lying under oath to a federal grand jury, witness-tampering, abuse of power and obstructing justice over his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 after he broke the Tenure of Office Act – which was put in place to ensure that the president didn’t dismiss important government officials without the Senate’s permission – by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M Stanton.

The house formally impeached him for bringing ‘disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt and reproach the Congress of the United States.’. He escaped being removed from office by just one vote.

Articles of impeachment were also passed against Richard Nixon in 1974 but he resigned as president before they could be considered by the full house.

To date, no US president has ever been removed from office as a result of being impeached – and since Trump’s impeachment trial will not begin until after Joe Biden’s inauguration, he will no longer be president when it takes place.

Which means, of course, he cannot be removed from office – but if he is found guilty he will be barred from ever running for the presidency again, which is believed he had planned to do in 2024.

He could also lose his right to a pension normally given to presidents after their time in office.

Why was Donald Trump previously impeached?

The president previously faced impeachment after he was accused of trying to cajole Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into digging up dirt on his rival Joe Biden.

That attempt to impeach him was unsuccessful, with Trump acquitted in February 2020. and remaining in office.

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