If the House approves Rep. Thomas Massie's articles, CBS News notes that Hegseth would become the third Cabinet secretary ever impeached. Some coverage gets the count wrong. NewsNation calls him potentially "among only two," but the record shows two impeachments before him, so he would be the third.
The usual summary is "Belknap acquitted, Mayorkas dismissed," and it leaves out a lot.
The three cases side by side
| William Belknap | Alejandro Mayorkas | Pete Hegseth (pending) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job | Secretary of War under Grant | Homeland Security Secretary under Biden | Defense Secretary under Trump |
| Year | 1876 | 2024 | 2026 |
| Charges | Kickbacks from a trading-post operator he appointed | Not enforcing immigration law (policy, not corruption) | Eight articles, including three over waging war on Iran without congressional authorization |
| Still in office when impeached? | No. He resigned March 2, 1876 | Yes | Yes |
| House vote | Unanimous | Failed 214-216, then passed 214-213 | Not yet held |
| Senate result | 37 guilty, 24 not guilty, short of two-thirds | Both articles dismissed without a trial | Unknown |
Was Mayorkas the first sitting secretary to be impeached?
Yes. Belknap was already out of office when the House acted. On March 2, 1876, the chairman of a House committee investigating the War Department, Rep. Hiester Clymer, told the House his panel had found corruption with "no parallel in our own history," according to NBC News. Belknap rushed to the White House to resign just before the vote. The House debated whether it could impeach someone who had already resigned, then voted unanimously to go ahead.
The Library of Congress says the full House approved formal articles in April 1876. That made Mayorkas the first Cabinet secretary impeached while still serving. If the House impeaches Hegseth, he would be the second.
How close did Belknap come to conviction?
Closer than "acquitted" suggests. In May 1876 the Senate voted that it could try Belknap even though he was a private citizen by then. At the August verdict, 61 senators voted. CNN reports that 37 voted guilty, 23 voted "not guilty for want of jurisdiction," and one voted simply not guilty.
Conviction needed two-thirds, or 41 votes, so the Senate fell four short. Most of the senators who voted no weren't saying Belknap was innocent. They believed the Senate couldn't convict someone who had already left office.
How did the Mayorkas case end?
It barely got through the House, and the Senate ended it without a trial. The first House vote failed 214-216 on Feb. 6, 2024, and the second passed 214-213 a week later. Three Republicans, including Ken Buck and Tom McClintock, voted against it. Buck had warned that the effort misused impeachment and would "boomerang back" on Republicans.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer argued that the first article was unconstitutional because it didn't allege a high crime or misdemeanor. The Hill reports that the Senate sustained his objection 51-48. The second article was dismissed 51-49.
That precedent matters for Hegseth. Several of Massie's articles concern how Hegseth has used military force. Besides Iran, they cite the strike on an Iranian school, the boat strikes in the Caribbean, the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and the Pentagon's scrutiny of Sen. Mark Kelly. A Senate could treat these as policy disputes, the way it treated the Mayorkas articles, or as legal violations. At least one Republican is already making a similar argument. GOP Rep. French Hill said poor job performance "doesn't mean per se" that someone has committed an impeachable offense.
What would be new about a Hegseth impeachment?
The party lineup would be new. This is our reading of who controlled what in each case; the sources don't spell it out.
- Belknap: a House where Democrats ran the investigating committee went after a member of Republican President Grant's Cabinet.
- Mayorkas: a Republican House went after a member of Democratic President Biden's Cabinet.
- Hegseth: the push comes from a Republican, Massie, in a narrow GOP majority, against a secretary serving a Republican president. Trump has said he would stand by Hegseth even if he is impeached.
In the earlier cases, the House majority acted against the other party's administration. Here, the vote depends on how many members of the president's own party join Democrats. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he is a "hard yes."
How often have Cabinet impeachments been tried and failed?
Often. NBC News lists several failed attempts in the first half of the 20th century, including a 1922 resolution against Attorney General Harry Daugherty and a 1932 effort against Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. It adds that over the past two decades, opening impeachment investigations into the other party's Cabinet members has become common.
Hegseth has already faced one attempt this year. In April 2026, House Democrats led by Rep. Yassamin Ansari filed six articles over his handling of the Iran war and his leadership more broadly. CBS said then that the effort almost certainly wouldn't move in a Republican House. Massie's articles are a separate push. He first introduced them in September, and refiling them on Nov. 9 started a two-day clock for House leaders to schedule a vote.
Belknap was Secretary of War, and some outlets, such as Fox News, now use that same title for Hegseth.
What isn't known yet
- Whether the House will impeach. That depends on how many Republicans cross over, and on whether GOP leaders try to table the resolution or send it to a committee instead of holding a straight vote.
- What the Senate would do. If the House impeaches, the Senate could hold a full trial or dismiss the articles quickly, as it did with Mayorkas. The sources we reviewed don't lay out the current Senate's partisan math.
- Whether war-powers charges count as "high crimes and misdemeanors." The Mayorkas dismissal is the closest precedent, but it involved immigration policy, not the use of military force.
One thing holds across 150 years of attempts: no Cabinet secretary has ever been convicted and removed.