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WASHINGTON — Amid

allegations that President

Trump abused his power by

pressuring Ukraine to inves-

tigate one of his political ri-

vals, House Speaker Nancy

Pelosi (D-San Francisco)

opened a formal impeach-

ment inquiry.

Trump has acknowl-

edged that he asked Ukrain-

ian President Volodymyr Ze-

lenesky to open investiga-

tions into Biden and his son

Hunter, who served on the

board of a Ukrainian gas

company. At the time of the

July 25 phone call in which

Trump asked Zelensky for

this “favor,” the U.S. presi-

dent had also put a hold on

nearly $400 million in aid to

Ukraine.

Those actions — first dis-

closed in a whistleblower’s

complaint — are now at the

center of the House im-

peachment inquiry.

Trump insists the with-

holding of the aid was not re-

lated to his request that

Ukraine investigate one of

his leading political rivals in

2020.

Though three presidents

have faced serious impeach-

ment efforts, and two were

impeached, the road ahead

is only loosely laid out by the

Constitution.

Here’s a look at what’s ex-

pected to happen next.

How does the House

impeach a president?

Beyond saying it should

be based on “treason, brib-

ery, or other high crimes

and misdemeanors,” the

Constitution provides sur-

prising little information

governing how to impeach a

sitting president.

Just two presidents, Bill

Clinton and Andrew John-

son, have been impeached.

President Richard Nixon

resigned from office in 1974

when it became clear there

were enough votes in the

House to impeach him and

in the Senate to remove him

from office.

Each was handled differ-

ently.

In the Clinton and Nixon

cases, the House Judiciary

Committee held lengthy

investigations and then

recommended articles of

impeachment to the full

House. Johnson was im-

peached a few days after

firing his secretary of war in

violation of the Tenure of

Office Act, which Congress

had passed to keep him

from changing the members

of his Cabinet without their

permission.

Pelosi has announced

that House Intelligence

Committee Chairman Ad-

am B. Schiff (D-Burbank)

will lead an investigation

into the whistleblower’s

allegations, and along with

five other committees, feed

information about potential

articles of impeachment to

the House Judiciary Com-

mittee, which will then

decide whether to forward

any to the House for a vote.

If a majority of repre-

sentatives supports even a

single article, the president

is impeached.

Doesn’t the House

have to vote to open an

impeachment inquiry?

This has been the subject

of much dispute. The House

voted to open an inquiry

into Nixon and Clinton, but

when the House impeached

President Andrew Johnson

in 1868, it did not.

Pelosi has indicated she

doesn’t see such a vote as

being necessary. Republi-

cans, meanwhile, are using

the lack of a vote to argue

the inquiry isn’t legitimate.

Just because the House

voted to open an inquiry in

the past doesn’t mean it

must always do so, Brook-

ings Institution fellow Mar-

garet L. Taylor said.

“There’s no real technical

reason for a full House vote,”

Taylor said. “The Constitu-

tion does not prescribe how

the House impeaches.”

Does this mean House

Democrats are done with

their other investigations

into Trump and his

administration?

No. The Financial Serv-

ices Committee will contin-

ue seeking the president’s

financial records from

Deutsche Bank.

The Ways and Means

Committee is still seeking

copies of Trump’s tax re-

turns from the Internal

Revenue Service. The Judi-

ciary Committee will keep

looking at Russian attempts

to interfere with the 2016

election.

But at this point, any

articles of impeachment are

expected to focus on

Ukraine and the whistle-

blower complaint.

Can the White House

block the Ukraine

investigation?

The Trump adminis-

tration could try, and there

have been some indications

that it will resist the House

inquiry. In other House

investigations, the adminis-

tration has refused to hand

over documents or comply

with subpoenas. When

officials have appeared to

testify before Congress,

many have asserted they are

covered by executive privi-

lege and aren’t able to an-

swer questions.

But the stakes are much

higher in an impeachment

inquiry. White House at-

tempts to stonewall the

House impeachment inves-

tigation could themselves

become grounds for im-

peachment.

“Now instead of Con-

gress saying pretty please

comply with our subpoenas,

they can demand that peo-

ple provide this testimony,

and if they refuse to do so,

use that refusal to do so by

the White House as the

basis for additional articles

of impeachment,” said

Susan Hennessey, a senior

fellow at the nonpartisan

Brookings Institution.

Congress used Nixon’s

refusal to hand over docu-

ments and audio as the

basis of its third article of

impeachment against him.

The House could also

potentially use its so-called

inherent contempt power to

compel the administration

to comply.

Once a commonly used

congressional power in

which the House arrests or

fines people who won’t

comply with subpoenas, it

hasn’t been used in 84 years.

More recently the House

has asked the Justice De-

partment and the courts to

uphold their right to gather

information. Such efforts

have proved fruitless under

the Trump administration.

“The efforts by the White

House to intimidate, to

prevent access, to prevent

us from doing our investiga-

tive responsibilities is a

violation of the Constitu-

tion. So we should be exer-

cising our rights under

inherent contempt,” Rep.

Jackie Speier (D-Hillsbor-

ough), an Intelligence Com-

mittee member, said.

What will be in the

articles of impeachment?

That’s fluid and it’s way

too early to say for sure.

Generally it’s expected that

any articles could include

obstruction of Congress,

obstruction of justice and

abuse of power.

Clinton was impeached

on two articles: lying under

oath and obstruction of

justice. Nixon faced three

articles: obstruction of

justice, abuse of power and

contempt of Congress.

Johnson was impeached on

11 articles.

Hennessey said Demo-

crats have to look for two

things as they decide what

to include: unambigously

impeachable conduct and

unambiguous evidence.

That means it’s unlikely

articles of impeachment will

include Trump’s behavior

before he was president or

anything the House has

been investigating since

Democrats took power in

January that is embroiled in

a legal battle.

It also is unlikely to in-

clude Democrats’ frustra-

tion over immigration and

other policy disagreements,

or most of what special

counsel Robert S. Mueller

III found in his report into

Russian interference in the

2016 election.

“Impeachment is not an

airing of any and all griev-

ances against the presi-

dent,” Hennessey said.

But that might be diffi-

cult to balance, she said,

because Democrats will not

want to appear to be con-

doning other behavior

they’ve been investigating.

“Impeachment is the

mechanism by which Con-

gress says what is accept-

able and what is not accept-

able,” Hennessey said. If

something isn’t included,

“you risk sending the mes-

sage to future presidents

that this other stuff is not

impeachable conduct.”

Once the House votes,

then what?

In case high school civics

feels like a long time ago,

here’s a reminder. Impeach-

ment itself does not mean

removal from office.

Think about impeach-

ment as the House voting to

bring charges against the

president, not unlike how a

grand jury might hand up

an indictment.

It then becomes the job

of the Senate to hold a trial

and determine whether to

convict the president and

remove him or her from

office.

A team of representa-

tives, known as managers,

play the role of prosecutors.

The president gets to have

defense lawyers, and the

Senate serves as the jury.

(Several Republican sena-

tors have already claimed

they cannot answer report-

ers’ questions about the

allegations against Trump

because they are potential

jurors, though that did not

stop GOP lawmakers dur-

ing the Clinton impeach-

ment.)

If at least two-thirds of

the senators find the presi-

dent guilty, he is removed,

and the vice president takes

over as president. There is

no appeal.

This has never hap-

pened. Both Clinton and

Johnson were not found

guilty and remained in

office.

Nixon resigned when it

became clear that he had

lost the support of fellow

Republicans and was going

to be removed.

Is the Senate required

to hold a trial?

Kind of.

Under Senate rules, if the

House votes to impeach,

Senate Majority Leader

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

said, “I would have no choice

but to take it up.” Speaking

on CNBC on Monday, he

added, “How long you’re on

it is a whole different matter.

But I would have no choice

but to take it up, based on a

Senate rule on impeach-

ment.”

That could take several

different forms. It would

take just a majority vote of

senators, for example, to

bring the articles up for

consideration and then

simply dismiss them with-

out having a complete trial.

Also, it’s always possible for

the Senate to just change

the existing rules.

What McConnell decides

to do may depend on public

opinion, and whether vul-

nerable Republican sena-

tors feel like they can defend

their votes enough at home

to be reelected.

When will this be over?

Pelosi wants the investi-

gation to move “expedi-

tiously.”

Democratic leaders have

hinted that it will take

weeks, a few months at

most. They don’t want to

drag this out too long and

lose public interest.

Democrats might want

to file articles of impeach-

ment by the end of the year

to lessen the appearance

that they are trying to influ-

ence the 2020 presidential

election, and to reduce how

much time their 2020 nomi-

nee has to spend time talk-

ing about it.

“At this point my view is

we need to either go forward

with impeachment — or not

go forward — by the end of

this year,” said Rep. Ted

Lieu (D-Torrance), a mem-

ber of the Judiciary and

Foreign Affairs committees.

“At some point the Ameri-

can people will be able to

remove or not remove [the

president] in November.

The closer you get to an

election the less sense it

makes to do an impeach-

ment process.”

John Hudak, a senior

fellow at the Brookings

Institution, said it was too

early to know which party

would politically benefit

from the inquiry and which

would be hurt.

“The next five to eight

weeks are probably going to

tell us a lot more about the

2020 election that the last

three years have,” he said.

BACK STORY

Impeachment’s loose rules

The Constitution is not precise on how the process has to play out

By Sarah D. Wire

HOUSE SPEAKERNancy Pelosi wants the impeachment investigation to move “expeditiously,” but there

is no timetable. If the House votes to impeach President Trump, his fate will rest with the Senate.

Kirk McKoyLos Angeles Times