Impeachment investigations of United States federal officials

Numerous federal officials in the United States have been threatened with impeachment and removal from office. Most investigations did not end in convictions, but caused great controversy nonetheless.

While there have been demands for the impeachment of most presidents,only two, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, have, and both were acquitted by the United States Senate and not actually removed from office. Removal requires an impeachment vote from the House of Representatives and a conviction from the Senate. Impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon made it out of committee, but he resigned before the actual debate on the floor of the House began.

The following Presidents have either had resolutions introduced to initiate proceedings and many have gotten to the hearing stage.

A number of attempts to remove President John Tyler from office failed. On January 10, 1843, Rep. John Minor Botts, of Virginia introduced a resolution that charged "John Tyler, Vice President acting as President" with nine counts of impeachable offenses, including corruption and official misconduct. The resolution was defeated, 83-127.

After Tyler vetoed a tariff bill in June 1842, the House of Representatives initiated the first impeachment proceedings against a president in American history. A committee headed by former president John Quincy Adams, then a congressman, condemned Tyler's use of the veto and stated that Tyler should be impeached. (This was not only a matter of the Whigs supporting the bank and tariff legislation which Tyler vetoed. Until the presidency of the Whigs' archenemy Andrew Jackson, presidents vetoed bills rarely, and then generally on constitutional rather than policy grounds, so Tyler's actions also went against the Whigs' concept of the presidency.) Adams then proposed a constitutional amendment to change the two-thirds requirement to override a veto to a simple majority, but neither house passed such a measure.

During most of 1860, the "Covode Committee" held hearings on whether to impeach President James Buchanan. While it found no real cause, it did find that his administration was the most corrupt since the foundation of the Republic.

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