The impeachment article against President Trump was delivered to the Senate, and House impeachment managers presented, displayed and read aloud. The trial is scheduled to begin the week of February 8.
“The House of Representatives managers are here and present and ready to present the impeachment article, which was preferred by the House of Representatives against Donald John Trump, former President of the United States,” said Chief Impeachment Manager, Congressman Jamie Raskin .
When Raskin was reading the article, he was silent in the Senate chamber and the impeachment managers in the Chamber stopped and listened carefully to Raskin.
There were only three Republicans in the Senate chamber when the impeachment administrators read the article: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Senators Roger Marshall of Kansas and Mitt Romney of Utah. There were at least 30 Democrats. Just before the reading, the Senate had confirmed Janet Yellen as secretary of the Treasury by a bipartisan vote of 84-16.
The House accused Trump on January 13 on charges of inciting an insurrection. A week earlier, Trump told supporters at a rally to “fight like hell” as members of Congress prepared to count the votes of the Electoral College. A crowd of his furious supporters then invaded the U.S. Capitol, sending lawmakers underground and delaying the electoral count by nearly six hours. The rioters broke windows and doors to gain access to Congress hallways, and five people died in the melee.
House Democrats brought the impeachment resolution to a vote with unprecedented speed, reflecting the gravity of the attack on the Capitol and the limited time remaining for Trump’s term. Biden became president on January 20, so Trump will be the first president to have an impeachment trial after leaving the office.
After the impeachment article is read on Monday, senators will be sworn in as members of the impeachment court on Tuesday, January 26. Then, both the impeachment managers and the president’s defense team will draft their documents for trial.
In a shift from Trump’s first impeachment trial, Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont, Senate pro tempore, preside over the trial instead of Chief Justice John Roberts.
“The president pro tempore has historically presided over the impeachment trials of non-presidents in the Senate,” Leahy confirmed in a statement on Monday. “In presiding over an impeachment trial, the president pro tempore takes an additional special oath to do impartial justice in accordance with the constitution and the laws. It is an oath that I take extraordinarily seriously ”.
Roberts presided over Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial, as designated by the Constitution. But the constitution is silent about who presides over the trial of a former president in the Senate, and a former president has never faced an impeachment trial.
Jack Turman contributed to this report.