Impeachment
On December 18, 2019 History.com's "day in history" feature recorded the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump was only the third US president to be impeached. While Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller's report had provided substantial evidence of misdeeds, its narrow focus, and constrained application by the Justice Department helped prevent any direct consequences to Trump. On August 12, 2019, however, a government staffer registered a formal "whistleblower complaint" concerning Trump's month-long effort to pressure the government of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. A central focus of the complaint was a phone call on July 25 between Trump and Ukrainian Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as White House attempts to cover up the call and other events. The complaint led eventually to impeachment in the US House of Representatives by a vote of 230-197-1 on the abuse of power charge, and 229-198-1 on the obstruction of Congress charge. Trump was later acquitted in the US Senate by votes of 52-48 on the first count and 51-49 on the second, with Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, becoming the only senator from an impeached president's party in US history to vote for conviction.