Article I, section 2 of the Constitution grants the "sole Power of Impeachment" to the House of Representatives, and section 3 grants the Senate the "sole Power to try all Impeachments." Those subject to impeachment are the President, the Vice-President, "and all civil Officers of the United States," e.g. cabinet members and federal judges. If the House does vote to impeach a public official, that would only be the start of the process. A trial must then be conducted by the Senate, followed by a 2/3 vote to convict. If convicted, the official is removed from office.

The impeachment process provides for no further penalties, neither prison sentence nor fines. It's chief concern is protecting the public office from corruption, not punishing the public official beyond removing him. However, the Senate also has the discretion to vote (by simply majority) for "disqualification," barring the official from ever holding federal office again. And, outside of the impeachment process in Congress, the official might still face legal prosecution in the courts.

The Constitution is silent on the actual procedures the House and Senate should follow in carrying out their duty to impeach, try, and convict. The established House practice is to initiate impeachment by adopting a resolution directing its Judiciary Committee to investigate the stated charges.

The impeachment process can also be triggered by an independent prosecuter. The Independent Counsel Act requires that office to submit to the Congress a report if they find any "substantial and credible information . . . that may constitute grounds for an impeachment."

The Speaker of the House has the option of referring this report to the House Judiciary Committee, or of appointing a special or ad hoc House committee to examine the report's findings. If the committee finds that impeachment proceedings should commence, it would make that recommendation to the House Judiciary Committee.

The Judiciary Committee would then most likely hold impeachment hearings, followed by a committee vote on whether or not to proceed by reporting to the full House a resolution containing the formal charge(s), known as the Article(s) of Impeachment (which are akin to an indictment).

If the Judiciary Committee reports a resolution containing Articles of Impeachment, the full House debates it, may amend it, and then votes on it. If the resolution is adopted (by simply majority vote), the matter goes to the Senate for trial.

The Senate's trial procedures are quite involved, with House Members presenting to the Senate the case for conviction, akin to prosecutors. The House Members selected must have voted for impeachment and come from both sides of the aisle. The House team has numbered anywhere from 5 to 11 Members. They are elected by the House or, at times, the House has adopted a resolution directing the Speaker to appoint them.

If the impeachment involves the President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the Senate trial. The trial resembles criminal proceedings, with the calling of witnesses, testimony by the defendant, and examination and cross-examination by counsels. At the completion of the trial, the Senate debates the matter in closed session, with each Senator limited to 15 minutes. It then returns to open session to vote separately on each Article of Impeachment. If any one of the articles receive a 2/3 vote the official is considered convicted. As recently as 1993, the Supreme Court heard a challenge to the Senate's time-consuming trial procedures. The Court ruled that the Senate had full authority to establish its own procedures as it wished, and that included having a special Senate committee hear all the evidence, instead of the full Senate.

The last official to have been impeached, tried, convicted and removed from office was U.S. District Judge Walter Nixon in 1989. In fact, all officials removed from office as a result of the impeachment process conducted by Congress have been federal district judges. No President has been removed from office due to impeachment. President Andrew Johnson was impeached and tried, but the Senate failed by one vote to convict him in 1868. In 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned from office prior to the House vote on impeachment.