WASHINGTON — House Republicans are moving forward with plans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, with a committee vote set for Tuesday morning and Speaker Mike Johnson promising a full House vote soon.
If the House of Representatives impeaches Mayorkas, requiring a majority vote, the matter will go to the Senate to begin a trial. This will be the second impeachment of a Cabinet Secretary ever and the first since 1876.
Although 148 years have passed since the last successful impeachment of a Cabinet member, there have been several failed attempts during that time. Opening an impeachment inquiry against a member of the Cabinet of Ministers of an opposition party has become particularly common in the last twenty years.
The only successful impeachment of the Cabinet so far
Active March 2, 1876 Rep. Hiester Clymer, D-Pa., rose to speak on the House floor. Clymer, who chairs the Appropriations Committee at the War Department, said his staff had uncovered “official corruption and crimes unmatched in our own history or as far as I know in any other country.”
According to Clymer, the culprit was William Belknap, who was the Secretary of War in the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant. It was the Golden Age, and Belknap “extravagant Washington parties”, which raised questions seeing as he was on the government payroll.
The source of Belknap’s wealth was a kickback scheme orchestrated by his first wife to help businessman Caleb Marsh get appointed to a trading post in Oklahoma. John Evans, who was in the business, struck a deal with Marsh—Evans would keep his lucrative job, but he would be paid $12,000 a year, split equally between Marsh and the Belknaps.
Clymer had a committee Marsh on record explains the situation. After entering the evidence into the record, Clymer moved to vote on impeachment. But there was a catch. A few hours earlier, Belknap rushed to the White House and begged Grant to accept his resignation, which the president did.
After debate over whether the House could impeach a resigned official, it did so with the House voting unanimously to impeach Belknap. He read in the New York Times: “THE GRAND SECRETARY” title tomorrow.
The Senate court started in April and heard the testimony of 40 witnesses. Although a majority of senators voted against Belknap on all five counts, the Senate did not reach the two-thirds majority required for conviction on any of them.
An increasingly popular move
There were several failed attempts to impeach Cabinet secretaries in the first half of the 20th century, including in 1922 when a resolution to impeach Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty was referred to the Judiciary Committee. Daugherty was charged not to judge For the people involved in the Kettle Dome Scandal behaves in an “arbitrary, oppressive, unjust and illegal” manner. The committee investigated the allegations, but said “it does not appear from the evidence that there is any basis for impeachment of Daugherty.”
Another attempt to impeach the Cabinet Secretary It came in 1932, when Rep. Wright Patman, D-Texas, moved to impeach Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon for maintaining ownership of shipping vessels while in public office. With pressure mounting, Mellon ended resigns and accepted President Herbert Hoover’s new appointment as ambassador to Great Britain. The Judiciary Committee decided to stop his impeachment inquiry.
Francis Perkins, Secretary of Labor under Franklin Roosevelt faced impeachment In 1939, by not deporting accused communist Harry Bridges for “disobeying, neglecting, and refusing to enforce the immigration laws of the United States.” Perkins gave a voluntary statement It was sent to the Judiciary Committee and the investigation ended quietly. Rep. John Martin, D-Colo., was disappointed that Perkins’ innocence was not better publicized. He went up to the floor of the house complain “After months of nationwide disclosure of false and unsubstantiated charges against a public official, the final outcome is not trumpeted and hardly ever made public.”
More recently, in the 21st century, several attorneys general have faced impeachment attempts that have not gained traction. Alberto Gonzalez, Attorney General for President George W. Bush, faced scrutiny because of the mass firing of federal prosecutors. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., has introduced a resolution directing the Judiciary Committee to investigate whether there are sufficient grounds for impeachment. Gonzales resigned before any action is taken on the resolution.
In 2013, a group of Republicans introduced it articles of impeachment Against President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, for failing to enforce the law and refusing to obey a congressional subpoena. The resolution was referred to the Judiciary Committee, but no hearing was held. President Donald Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, also faced a problem failed impeachment attempt.
most recently, There are Republicans set their attractions are just outside Mallorcawith threats of impeachment Also, after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to notify the White House of his hospitalization Attorney General Merrick Garland.