section_path: Constitutional roles/President of the Senate/Presiding over impeachment trials
section_name: Presiding over impeachment trials
paragraph_text: Presiding over impeachment trials
  
  In their capacity as president of the Senate, the vice president may preside over most impeachment trials of federal officers, although the Constitution does not specifically require it. However, whenever the president of the United States is on trial, the Constitution requires that the chief justice of the United States must preside. This stipulation was designed to avoid the possible conflict of interest in having the vice president preside over the trial for the removal of the one official standing between them and the presidency. In contrast, the Constitution is silent about which federal official would preside were the vice president on trial by the Senate. No vice president has ever been impeached, thus leaving it unclear whether an impeached vice president could, as president of the Senate, preside at their own impeachment trial.