Impeachment Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers
What is impeachment?
A: Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body levels charges
against a government official.
Impeachment does is similar to what in
criminal law?
A: An indictment.
In some countries the individual is provisionally
removed, in others they can remain in office during what?
A: During the trial.
Once impeached, an individual must then face the
possibility of conviction on the charges by a what?
A: By a legislative vote.
Impeachment and conviction of officials are usually
reserved for those deemed to have committed what?
A: Serious abuses of their office.
In the United States impeachment at the federal level
is limited to those who may have committed what?
A: "Treason, Bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors".
The impeachment process was first used by the English
"Good Parliament" against whom in the second half of the 14th century?
A: Baron Latimer.
The constitutions of Virginia (1776) and
Massachusetts
(1780) (and other states) adopted the impeachment mechanism, but they
restricted the punishment to what?
A: Removal of the official from office.
Article One of the United States Constitution gives the
House of Representatives the sole power of what?
A: Impeachment.
It also gives the Senate the sole power to do what?
A: To try impeachments of officers of the U.S. federal government.
Various state constitutions include similar measures,
allowing the state legislature to impeach whom?
A: The governor or other officials of the state government.
In the United States, impeachment is only the first of
two stages, and conviction during the second stage requires what?
A: "the concurrence of two thirds of the members present".
Impeachment does not necessarily result in what?
A: Removal from office; it is only a
legal statement of charges, parallel to
an indictment in criminal law.
An official who is impeached faces a second legislative
vote, which determines what?
A: Conviction, or failure to convict, on the charges embodied by the
impeachment.
Most constitutions require a “what” to convict?
A: Supermajority.
Although the subject of the charge is criminal action,
it does not constitute a what?
A: A criminal trial; the only question under consideration is the removal of
the individual from office.
The House of Representatives has initiated impeachment
proceedings how many times since 1789?
A: 64.
How many of these proceedings actually resulted in the
House's passing Articles of Impeachment?
A: Only 19.
Of those, how many resulted in removal from office?
A: Only eight (all federal judges).
How many United States Presidents have been impeached?
A: Three: Andrew Johnson in 1868,
Bill Clinton in
1998 and
Donald Trump in
2019.
Neither Johnson nor Clinton were convicted by the Senate, while Trump still awaits a Senate trial.
Additionally, there were efforts to impeach what other
presidents?
A: John Tyler and
Richard Nixon (Nixon resigned before proceedings began).
The impeachment of Donald Trump, the 45th president of
the United States, occurred on what date?
A: December 18, 2019, when the House of Representatives approved articles of
impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Donald Trump's impeachment came after a formal House
inquiry found that he had done what?
A: Solicited foreign interference in the 2020 U.S.
presidential
election to
help his re-election bid.
They also found that he obstructed the inquiry itself
by telling his administration officials to do what?
A: To ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony.
The inquiry reported that Trump withheld what in order
to influence Ukraine to announce an investigation of Trump's political
opponent, Joe Biden, and to promote a discredited conspiracy theory that
Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the
2016 presidential
election?
A: Military aid and an invitation to the White House to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The inquiry stage of Trump's impeachment lasted from
September to when?
A: November 2019, in the wake of an August 2019 whistleblower complaint
alleging Trump's abuse of power.
In October, three congressional committees
(Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs) did what?
A: Deposed witnesses.
In November, the House Intelligence Committee held a
number of public hearings in which witnesses did what?
A: Testified publicly.
On December 3, the committee voted 13–9 along party
lines to do what?
A: To adopt a final report.
A set of impeachment hearings before the House
Judiciary Committee began on what date?
A: December 4.
On December 13, it voted 23–17 along party lines to
recommend what two articles of impeachment?
A: Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
When did the committee release a lengthy report on the
impeachment articles?
A: On December 16.
Two days later, the full House approved both articles
in a near-party-line vote, with all
Republicans opposing along with how many
Democrats?
A: Three.
This made Trump the third U.S. president in
history to
be what?
A: Impeached.
The articles were submitted to the Senate on January
16, 2020, initiating what?
A: The trial.