Harrison Arlington "Pete" Williams Jr. was an American politician and lawyer. He was a Democrat who represented New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives (1953–1957) and the United States Senate (1959–1982). Williams was convicted on May 1, 1981, for taking bribes in the Abscam sting operation, and resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1982 before a planned expulsion vote.
In the United States, impeachment is the process by which a legislature may bring charges against an officeholder for misconduct alleged to have been committed with a penalty of removal. Impeachment may also occur at the state level if the state or commonwealth has provisions for it under its constitution. Impeachment might also occur with tribal governments as well as at the local level of government.
Censure is a formal, public, group condemnation of an individual, often a group member, whose actions run counter to the group's acceptable standards for individual behavior. In the United States, governmental censure is done when a body's members wish to publicly reprimand the president of the United States, a member of Congress, a judge or a cabinet member. It is a formal statement of disapproval. It relies on the target's sense of shame or their constituents' subsequent disapproval, without which it has little practical effect when done on members of Congress and no practical effect when done on the president.
Joseph Ralph Burton was a lawyer and United States Senator from the state of Kansas. He was the first Senator to be convicted of a crime. He served in the Kansas House of Representatives several times in the 1880s and was elected to the United States Senate in 1901, but he was convicted of accepting bribes in 1905. He appealed twice to the Supreme Court, but the judgment was eventually upheld and he resigned. He lived out his life as a lawyer and newspaperman.
John Brooks Henderson was an American attorney and politician who represented Missouri in the United States Senate from 1862 to 1869.
Impeachment in the Philippines is an expressed power of the Congress of the Philippines to formally charge a serving government official with an impeachable offense. After being impeached by the House of Representatives, the official is then tried in the Senate. If convicted, the official is either removed from office or censured.
Expulsion is the most serious form of disciplinary action that can be taken against a Member of Congress. The United States Constitution provides that "Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member." The process for expulsion from the House of Representatives differs somewhat from the process for expulsion from the Senate.
In the United States, federal impeachment is the process by which the House of Representatives charges the president, vice president, or another civil federal officer for alleged misconduct. The House can impeach an individual with a simple majority of the present members or other criteria adopted by the House according to Article One, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution.
