Administrators of the House’s impeachment will open the case against Donald Trump for “inciting insurrection,” reporting the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol in harrowing and cinematic detail, rekindling the senators the chaos and trauma they experienced on January 6.
The historic second impeachment trial will open on Tuesday, in the Senate plenary session that was overrun by protesters, with a debate over the constitutionality of the process. In a petition filed on Monday, Trump’s lawyers called the case a “political theater” and argued that the Senate “lacks constitutional jurisdiction” to try a former president after he left office – an argument that Democrats rejected promptly.
Exactly a week after the attack on the Capitol, Trump became the first president to be charged twice by the House of Representatives. This week, he will become the first ex-president to stand trial. It would take 17 Republicans joining all Democrats in the Senate to plead Trump guilty, making the conviction highly unlikely.
However, when opening arguments begin later this week, House Democrats will try to force senators to see the attack on the Capitol as the culmination of Trump’s long campaign to overturn the election result he lost to Joe Biden. With video and audio recordings, impeachment managers, led by Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, will try to control the anger and indignation that many members of Congress expressed in the aftermath of the riot, which sought to prevent them from counting the college votes. and thus to interrupt the transition of power.
In a 78-page report submitted to the Senate on Monday, Trump’s lawyers presented a rebuttal on two fronts, also arguing that his rhetoric was in no way responsible for the attack on the Capitol.
Senators will grapple with the constitutional issue on Tuesday, when they are expected to debate and vote on the matter. Although academics and most senators say they believe the trial is constitutional, many Republicans have taken advantage of the technical argument that a old The president cannot be tried for “serious crimes and misdemeanors” as a way of justifying support for Trump’s acquittal without appearing to excuse his behavior.
In their own pre-trial case on Monday, House administrators rejected the arguments put forward by Trump’s lawyers and vowed to hold Trump accountable for “the most serious constitutional crime ever committed by a president”.
“Presidents take a sacred oath that unites them from the first day of their term to the last,” they wrote. “There is no ‘January exception’ to the constitution that allows presidents to abuse power in their final days without being accountable.”
In a vote last month, everyone except five Republican senators voted to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional. Still, Charles Cooper, a leading conservative lawyer, rejected that view in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday.
As the constitution also allows the Senate to disqualify former federal employees from holding public office again, Cooper wrote, “it defies logic to suggest that the Senate is prohibited from prosecuting and convicting former public office holders.”
The trial begins just over a year after Trump’s impeachment for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden’s family. He was acquitted by the Senate.
Americans now support Trump’s sentencing more, according to an ABC News / Ipsos poll released on Sunday. He found that 56% of Americans believe the Senate should condemn Trump and prevent him from a future post.
While the exact structure of the trial remains uncertain, subject to negotiations between Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Republican chamber leader Mitch McConnell, it is expected to be much faster than Trump’s first trial.
By means of a draft agreement between the leaders, obtained by the New York Times, the opening discussions would begin on Wednesday, with up to 16 hours on each side. At the request of Trump’s lawyers, the process will be halted on Friday evening for Jewish Saturday and resumed on Sunday.
House managers must renounce calling witnesses, an important point of contention during Trump’s first trial. The former president refused his request to testify, a decision that Raskin said “speaks for itself and clearly establishes an adverse inference that supports his guilt”.
Managers have indicated that they intend to present a comprehensive case, outlining Trump’s extraordinary efforts to reverse his defeat, including a call in which he pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to nullify Biden’s victory there. When it became clear that all other avenues were closed, they will argue, Trump turned his attention to the Capitol certification vote, encouraging his supporters to attend a rally held to protest the outcome.
At that event, Trump begged them to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol to register their discontent – words that his defense team will argue are protected by the first amendment.
House officials say that “it is impossible to imagine the events of January 6 taking place without President Trump creating a powder keg, striking a match and then seeking personal advantage in the ensuing destruction.”