This week, a prominent American Republican lawmaker presented articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a move that could make him the third US administration official to face impeachment proceedings in US history.
Here's what to know about the mechanism the House uses to bring impeachments aimed at removing an administration official, and how those proceedings could evolve.
How is the isolation process done?
The Constitution grants the House of Representatives the “exclusive power of impeachment,” while granting the Senate the power to “conduct impeachment trials.”
The procedures can begin with an investigation conducted by a House of Representatives committee, the results of which are later presented to the House to vote on articles of impeachment.
A successful vote in the House of Representatives requires a simple majority.
Afterwards, a trial may be held in the Senate, where a special majority of two-thirds of the Senate is required for a guilty verdict.
But the course of the process does not necessarily follow this pattern.
On Monday, Republican Representative Thomas Massie submitted a resolution calling for the removal of Hegseth, and the Republican Party leadership now has two legislative days to set a date for a vote on it in the House of Representatives.
The Republican Party leadership can put forward a proposal to postpone consideration of the decision - or obstruct it - when the vote comes. However, if the House of Representatives approves the impeachment decision, the issue will move to the Senate.
Although the conviction of the official at the conclusion of the Senate trial requires a vote of two-thirds of the members, it is possible that the Senate - which is controlled by Republicans - will take a different path that would eliminate the need for holding a trial in the first place.
If the impeachment vote is successful in the House of Representatives, it is expected that the Senate will likely seek to reject the case or refer it to a committee for further study. Both measures require a majority of votes.
Why are lawmakers seeking to impeach Hegseth?
Rep. Massie put forward eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth, accusing the Defense Secretary of “waging war in Iran without Congress’ approval, ignoring laws related to limiting civilian casualties, and directing the Department of Defense to carry out extrajudicial killings.” The documents address US actions in Iran, Venezuela, and Yemen, as well as operations targeting ships in the Western Hemisphere believed to be carrying narcotics. Since the start of these operations in September, at least 80 ships have been destroyed and killed. 243 people, while the Pentagon did not provide any public evidence to support its allegations against the people who were killed in those operations.”
Regarding Iran, Hegseth was accused of "ordering the US Armed Forces to engage in hostilities without a declaration of war, obtaining legal authorization, or the existence of a national emergency."
It stated that Hegseth "abused the powers of his high office by executing an unlawful order to initiate hostilities, absent a declaration of war, a specific legal authorization, or a national emergency arising from an attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."
He also accused him of fostering "a culture of war-waging within the Department of Defense, where he flaunts his disdain for what he calls 'stupid rules of engagement', preferring to 'achieve maximum lethality, rather than half-hearted adherence to the law'."
He stressed that the deadly US strike on an elementary school in Iran was a "predictable" consequence of Hegseth's decisions.
In Yemen, Hegseth was accused of waging an “illegal” war that contributed to the deaths of civilians, while in Venezuela, documents describe the operation that ended with the arrest of its former president, Nicolas Maduro, as “an act of war against a sovereign state, carried out under the guise of enforcing anti-drug laws.”
He concluded by saying: “In all of the above, Minister Hegseth acted in a manner inconsistent with the trust entrusted to him as Minister of Defense, and in a way that undermined the constitutional order, which caused severe harm to the rule of law and justice, and caused clear harm to the American people.”
Who are the government ministers who were previously subjected to isolation procedures?
If the impeachment vote in the House of Representatives is successful, Hegseth will become the third government minister to be subject to these procedures.
In 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap faced impeachment proceedings against the backdrop of his involvement in receiving bribes and corruption cases.
Belknap tried to avoid impeachment proceedings by resigning, as he tearfully submitted his resignation to President Ulysses Grant at the White House. However, impeachment proceedings went ahead, but the Senate failed to convict Belknap.
Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security under former President Joe Biden, was the latest Cabinet member to face impeachment proceedings.
In 2024, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to impeach Mayorkas by a narrow margin, due to his management of the immigration file at the southern border, but the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, later voted to drop the two articles of impeachment directed against him.
Could Hegseth be removed from his position?
The process of removing an official requires approval by two-thirds of the Senate to convict him on impeachment charges.
This has never happened to any Cabinet official.
An aide to a Republican Party member told CNN last week that there is a strong case for the Senate to refer the matter to a specialized committee to conduct an investigation, instead of moving directly to trial, but he indicated that no decisions in this regard will be taken until after the impeachment proceedings actually begin.
How did Hegseth react?
Hegseth said on Monday that he was not concerned about efforts to impeach him, adding that he agreed with Trump that if he had the opportunity to go back in time, he would wage war on Iran again.
He explained that the disagreements in Congress over political decisions in the Ministry of Defense are in fact “disagreements about success,” and that those who object to the military operations that took place under his supervision are, in fact, “objecting to the military forces themselves.”
In a defiant video clip that he posted on the X platform last week, amid news that he might face impeachment by Congress, Hegseth said that “the other side” is obsessed with this matter.
Hegseth added in the video that he filmed in front of the Ministry of Defense building: “A member of Congress - a dissatisfied and defeated person - in cooperation with his Democratic allies introduced false articles of impeachment against me, just as they tried to do to President Trump twice.”
He added: "It's all about the policy of personal destruction. This method did not work against President Trump, and it will not work with me either. Be sure of that."
