In impeachment proceedings, the members of the House of Representatives serve in the role of a grand jury, deciding whether to bring an indictment against a particular individual. If a simple majority of the House votes for such an indictment, then the individual faces charges of impeachment. Such charges as referred to as Articles of Impeachment. The next step is a trial, and the people deciding the individual's guilty or innocence are the members of the U.S. Senate. The Chief Justice of the United States presides over an impeachment trial. If a two-thirds majority of the Senate votes to convict the individual facing impeachment, then the individual is convicted and removed from office. The Senate can further, by a simple majority, declare that the convicted individual can never again be eligible to hold public office.

All three impeached Presidents were acquitted by the Senate, Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Trump in 2020.

The first time around, the House filed two Articles of impeachment against Trump, one alleging abuse of power (in connection with the withholding of foreign aid to Ukraine in exchange for a political investigation) and the other refusing to comply with House subpoenas for information and/or testimony in connection with the impeachment investigation. On both of those Articles, the Senate voted to acquit Trump.

The second impeachment consists of one Article, a charge of inciting violence in connection with a speech that Trump made on January 6 in Washington, D.C. People attending that speech then stormed the U.S. Capitol, disrupting the Congressional certification of the Electoral College vote that made official Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. A group of hundreds of people roamed the Capitol building, forcing members of Congress to barricade themselves inside the Senate chamber for a period of time. Security surrounding the Capitol was insufficient to contain the mob, although violence did ensue at some points, killing six people, including a member of U.S. Capitol Police and an armed forces veteran.

The House voted to impeachment Trump again on Jan. 12. The Senate will act as jury. Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy will preside over the proceedings. A group of members of the House of Representatives will make their case in favor of the Articles of impeachment; then, representatives for the former President will state the case against conviction. The final step is a vote by the entire Senate. A vote tally of 67 or more will result in conviction. The Senate could then take the further step of voting on whether to ban Trump from holding federal office again. That vote would need only a simple majority, or 51. The current Democrat-Republican split in the Senate is 50–50. Breaking any tie vote would be the Vice-president, Kamala Harris, a Democrat.