Regardless of how you look at it, impeachment is a political act. The punishment for impeachment is not jail, or a fine or even having to wear an ankle monitor. It is simply the removal of a person from the position or office of trust which they held. They could be charged criminally for their acts after removal, but until 1987, no person who held office or trust under the United States who had been impeached was ever charged criminally let alone convicted of an actual criminal offense.
The Constitution seems clear as to what justifies impeachment: “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” is the actual verbiage, although most Americans seem to only know about the last two. Frankly, that is the main reason that the language has shifted from “quid pro quo” to “bribery.”
At the end of the day, impeachment has always been about politics, because politics is power.
