Gerald Ford in Politico.com

On Principles & Values: An "impeachable offense" is whatever the House says it is

Impeachment must be launched in the House. If representatives vote to impeach, the case is tried in the Senate. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution lays out the grounds for removal from office as: "Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

The open-ended constitutional provision raises questions about whether Trump's claim that he has done nothing to merit impeachment holds. Legal experts have long debated how to define "high crimes and misdemeanors," which some say don't necessarily correspond to written law. In 1970, then-Rep. Gerald Ford declared: "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history."