The second impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump begins Tuesday afternoon, a moment that makes history for the institution of the presidency and that can have lasting political repercussions as the Republican Party traces its future.
Mr. Trump has already claimed the undesirable distinction of being the first president to face two charges. His first Senate trial, because of his pressure campaign on Ukraine, ended in acquittal a year ago.
The retrial is probably heading for the same outcome, especially after everyone except five Republican senators voted in an unsuccessful attempt last month to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional. Seventeen Republicans would need to join all 50 Democrats to condemn Trump on the charge he faces, “inciting insurrection”.
The procedures, however, will be filled with high-risk legal and political calculations.
The administrators of the impeachment of the Chamber have the opportunity to present a vivid portrait of a president who defies the truth, who incited his supporters to undertake a deadly attack on the Capitol. Presenting their case at a briefing last week, they declared that Trump was “uniquely responsible” for the siege and should be sentenced and disqualified from taking public office again.
In a statement on Monday offering a defense of the former president, Trump’s lawyers said he “did not order anyone to commit illegal actions” and argued that the Senate had no power to try a former president.
The judgment must be quick. Each side has up to 16 hours to present its case, and a final vote to condemn or acquit Trump may take place early next week. This schedule would make the impeachment trial the fastest in history for a president.
It will unfold at a politically delicate moment for Republicans and Democrats, albeit in markedly different ways. Republicans face deep divisions over the party’s path after Trump’s presidency, as evidenced by the reaction against the 10 House Republicans who voted last month for his impeachment. The trial will once again put a spotlight on Trump’s conduct after an electoral defeat that he refused to accept.
Democrats are determined to hold Trump accountable for his actions, but they also have another important consideration: the fate of President Biden’s agenda in the first weeks of his presidency. Biden is trying to get approval for his $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package, a considerable legislative undertaking that Democrats in Congress don’t want to postpone.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s second impeachment trial begins on Tuesday, about a month after he was accused by the House of inciting insurrection for his role in inciting a violent crowd that invaded the Capitol on January 6. .
Here’s what you need to know.
How will the judgment develop?
A bipartisan agreement reached on Monday could pave the way for an especially quick and efficient procedure, which could end early next week.
The Senate must vote to approve the rules and formally start the trial at 1 pm Tuesday. Up to four hours will be dedicated to the debate on the constitutionality of the impeachment of a president who is no longer in office. If the simple majority of senators agree to move on, as expected, the main part of the trial begins.
Starting on Wednesday, the Public Ministry and the defense will have 16 hours each to present their cases to senators, who act as jurors.
Tradition dictates that senators have at least one day to ask questions. The trial is expected to end with final arguments and a final vote on Mr. Trump’s sentencing.
What are the arguments on both sides?
In a quick and cinematic case, House administrators will argue before the Senate that Trump is guilty of inciting a deadly crowd of his supporters to invade the Capitol on January 6.
The prosecution plans to show videos captured by the crowd, Trump’s naked words and criminal appeals from troublemakers who said they acted on the former president’s orders. House managers seek a conviction and prevent Mr. Trump from taking office again.
In a 78-page report presented on Monday, Trump’s lawyers argued that the impeachment process was unconstitutional because Congress has no basis for trying a former president.
On Friday, more than 140 constitutional lawyers attacked this argument, calling it “legally frivolous”.
The first question to be considered in the opening hours of former President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial on Tuesday will be the question of whether it is constitutional to put an impeded former president on trial.
Senate Republicans who voted last month to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional were pressed on Sunday to reevaluate their position when a leading conservative constitutional lawyer, Charles J. Cooper – who has been a close ally and adviser to Republican senators like Ted Cruz de Texas – argued in a Wall Street Journal article that his claims about the constitutionality of the case were unfounded.
The impeachment pressured Senate Republicans to tolerate or repudiate Trump’s conduct. Some dropped the issue to focus on the process itself, arguing that, regardless of Trump’s actions constituting crimes and misdemeanors, the Senate could not prosecute him because the constitution did not allow an ex-president to be tried on impeachment.
Trump’s lawyers must make a more restrictive and technical argument that the constitution prohibits a former president from being put on trial.
“The United States Senate has no jurisdiction over the 45th president because he does not hold any public office from which he can be removed, making the impeachment article debatable,” wrote Trump’s lawyers Bruce L. Castor Jr. and David Schoen. in a 14-page response to House managers last week.
Impeachment managers in the House of Democrats are widely expected to state that a president can be put on trial for crimes committed in office, regardless of when the trial is held. Otherwise, Democrats say, there would be no way to hold a president who commits irregularities in the last weeks of a term in office.
In the opinion piece, Cooper followed the Republicans’ claim that, since the penalty for an impeachment conviction is dismissal from office, it never intended to be applied to a former president.
Cooper argued that the Constitution gives the Senate the power to ban convicted officials from taking office again, writing: “It is a logical contradiction to suggest that the Senate is prohibited from prosecuting and convicting former office holders.”
The Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump will begin with oral arguments on Tuesday, but the apparatus that fed him with much of his power – the conservative media – is facing a test of its own. This can have a far greater impact on the future of American politics than anything that happens to Trump as an individual.
In the past few weeks, two voting technology companies have filed 10-digit lawsuits each against Trump’s lawyers and their allies in the media, claiming that they have spread falsehoods that have caused tangible damage. This comes amid an already intense debate over the reform of Section 230 of the Decency in Communications Act, which prevents online companies from being held responsible for the opinions expressed on their platforms.
“The biggest consequence of the Trump presidency was disinformation as a weapon and the parallel dismantling of confidence in the media,” said Mark McKinnon, a longtime political strategist and co-host of Showtime’s political series “The Circus”.
“Unfortunately, it was necessary to perpetrate the big lie that the election was a fraud, an insurrection on Capitol Hill and almost destroying our democracy for someone to finally act,” said McKinnon. “But it seems to be working. Nothing like threatening financial results to get the attention you want. “
On Thursday, electronic voting firm Smartmatic filed a $ 2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News, some of its prominent hosts and two lawyers representing Trump, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. The lawsuit accuses them of mounting a smear campaign, claiming that Smartmatic was involved in an effort to launch the election. This followed a similar $ 1.3 billion lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems opened against Giuliani the week before.
The impact was immediate. Newsmax, an ultraconservative TV station that expanded its popularity by aligning itself to Fox News’ right, cut an interview with MyPillow founder Mike Lindell last week while he attacked Dominion – something commentators had done on station many times before. Then, over the weekend, Fox Business alienated Lou Dobbs, one of the fiercest supporters of Trump’s TV news and defendant named in the Smartmatic lawsuit.