Second impeachment of Donald Trump (jan 13, 2021 – feb 13, 2021)

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Donald Trump, serving as the 45th president of the United States, was impeached for the second time on January 13th, 2021, one week before his term expired. On that date, the House of Representatives adopted one article of impeachment against Trump: incitement of insurrection. On February 13th, 2021, the Senate voted to acquit Trump on the article of impeachment.

The House of Representatives of the 117th U.S. Congress adopted one article of impeachment against Trump of "incitement of insurrection", stating that he had incited the January 6 attack of the U.S. Capitol. The House impeachment managers formally triggered the start of the impeachment trial on January 25th by delivering to the Senate the charge against Trump. The trial in the Senate started on February 9th. At the trial in the Senate, 57 senators voted "guilty", which was less than the two-thirds majority needed (67) to convict Trump, and 43 senators voted "not guilty", resulting in Trump being acquitted of the charges on February 13th, 2021.[3]

The trial was the first of its kind for a departed U.S. president: all other impeachment trials of presidents (those of Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Trump) occurred during their presidencies. Many Republican senators challenged the validity of holding an impeachment trial for a president no longer in office; proponents cited the Senate's 1876 trial of William W. Belknap, the Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant, who was impeached, but not convicted, after resigning from office immediately before a House vote on his impeachment.

This impeachment was the fourth impeachment of a U.S. president, and the second of Trump; his first impeachment was in December 2019.

In August 2023, Trump was twice indicted for the conduct at issue in his impeachment, once in Georgia and once federally. The federal charges were dismissed without prejudice in November 2024, due to the DOJ's policy of not prosecuting sitting Presidents, subsequent to Trump's re-election that month.

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