Who is on the prosecution team at Trump’s impeachment trial?

Who is on the prosecution team at Trump’s impeachment trial?

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Dive into the background of the nine impeachment managers House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose to present the case to the Senate in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump, and a common thread will emerge: deep experience in the law.

All equipped with law degrees, the nine managers include Democrats who served as notable characters in Trump’s first impeachment trial and some who vehemently opposed Trump after the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill.

Previous impeachment trials have shown that the role of the impeachment manager can bring valuable recognition to representatives and raise their political profile. Lindsey Graham, now a senior senator from South Carolina, served as impeachment manager at President Bill Clinton’s Senate trial. Representative Adam Schiff of California served as chief manager in Trump’s first impeachment trial.

The six men and three women chosen by Pelosi reflect the geographic and demographic diversity within the Democratic caucus.

Here are the nine House Democrats who will sue the former president:

Maryland

Representative Jamie Raskin, who started drafting the impeachment article against President Trump just hours after the rebels arrived at the Capitol on January 6, will serve as chief impeachment manager. His role will make him the primary prosecutor at the Senate trial.

Raskin, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former professor of constitutional law at American University, became known among House Democrats as an expert on constitutional law. Strongly influenced by his father’s liberal policy, Marcus Raskin, who was a notable anti-war activist, Raskin showed a passion for the Constitution and American history.

Mr. Raskin serves on important House committees: the House Rules Committee, which defines the terms of the debate in the House; the Chamber’s Judiciary Committee; and the Chamber Supervision and Reform Commission.

In addition to contributing to the impeachment article, Mr. Raskin also wrote the resolution calling on former Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to release Mr. Trump from presidential powers.

Raskin’s involvement as chief impeachment manager comes while he is dealing with the recent loss of his son, Tommy, who died of suicide on New Year’s Eve. Just a day after his son’s funeral, Mr. Raskin arrived at the Capitol to certify the results of the Electoral College. At the end of the day, he openly denounced the attack on the Capitol and recalled the words of Thomas Paine, who named his son: “In monarchies, the king is the law. But in democracies, the law will be king. “

Colorado

Congresswoman Diana DeGette, first elected to the House in 1996, is no stranger to impeachment procedures. In 2019, she chaired the debate in the House to oust Mr. Trump, and now as one of the impeachment managers appointed to sue the former president, she will have a chance to further develop her in-house experience.

“Nobody is above the law in this country, not even ex-presidents”, Mrs. DeGette wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Ms. DeGette graduated from New York University in 1982 in law. Before her time in Congress, she was a lawyer with a focus on civil rights and later served two terms as a state deputy in Colorado.

While at Congress, she made health policy and reproductive rights her legislative priorities. She co-authored the 21st Century Cure Law, signed in 2016, which aimed to accelerate biomedical research and product development and promote efficiency by bringing innovations to patient care.

Congressman David Cicilline, one of the co-authors of the impeachment article filed against Trump this month, is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and worked to investigate Trump during the impeachment in 2019. He also helped oversee other investigations of Mr. Trump and its advisors, as an investigation into the possibility of campaign funding violations.

Mr. Cicilline heads the Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee and has been a staunch watchdog for major technology companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook. Prior to his election to Congress, Mr. Cicilline served as a public defender in the District of Columbia and served two terms as Mayor of Providence, RI, and four terms in the Rhode Island House of Representatives.

In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Cicilline blamed Trump for inciting violence on Capitol Hill on January 6 and said the impeachment charge was aimed at “defending the integrity of the republic”.

“The president must be held accountable,” wrote Cicilline. “This can only happen with his impeachment a second time and condemning him in the Senate.”

Texas

As a member of the House’s Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, Representative Joaquin Castro expressed his commitment to seeing the former president tried and convicted.

Castro, who voted for Trump’s impeachment in 2019, participated in hearings as a member of the intelligence committee during the former president’s first impeachment investigation and during public questioning before the impeachment articles were written.

A Harvard-trained lawyer, Castro worked in private practice before his days in Congress and previously served five terms in the Texas Legislature. He led the Hispanic Caucus during the 116th Congress and has been an outspoken opponent of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

California

Since being elected to Congress in 2012, Representative Eric Swalwell has helped investigate the evidence against Mr. Trump during the first impeachment and will now build on his experience as a former prosecutor in his role as impeachment manager.

As a member of the House’s Intelligence and Judiciary committees, he took an active role in the 2019 impeachment procedures, helping to draft a subpoena that led to the testimony of former special adviser Robert S. Mueller III before Congress, which led Democrats calling for impeachment.

In his book, “Endgame: Inside the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump,” Mr. Swalwell chronicled his personal account of Trump’s impeachment. Outside of impeachment, Swalwell has frequently criticized Trump’s leadership, like his approach to climate change when fires devastated parts of California last year.

Mr. Swalwell attended law school at the University of Maryland and returned to California to work as a prosecutor in the Alameda County district attorney’s office. He briefly ran for president in 2019 before giving up the race to seek a fifth term in Congress.

On Monday, Mr. Swalwell conveyed a moderate tone like he posted a photo on Twitter of the Democrats delivering the impeachment article to the Senate.

“My prayer for our country is that no one goes back on this path”, He wrote.

California

On January 6, hours after the attack on the Capitol that resulted in five deaths, Deputy Ted Lieu gave three suggestions for how politicians should move forward after certifying the results of the Electoral College: Impeach Mr. Trump, invoke the 25th Amendment or getting Mr. Trump to resign.

“Congress cannot just go home as if nothing has happened”, he wrote on twitter.

Lieu, who wrote the article along with Cicilline and Raskin, has been relentless in his criticisms of Trump, often calling the president on Twitter, which makes Lieu’s account a popular attraction for Democrats.

His appointment as impeachment manager occurs after his election to the Chamber in 2014. He serves on the Chamber’s Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.

Prior to his election to Congress, he studied computer science and political science at Stanford University and received a law degree from Georgetown University. He later joined the Air Force and served on the General Counsel’s Corps. He is currently a reserve colonel.

Mr. Lieu is a former member of the California State Assembly and the State Senate.

Virgin Islands

Although Deputy Stacey Plaskett was unable to vote for Trump’s impeachment, she will now be able to make the case against him at her Senate trial in her role as impeachment manager. (As she represents US territory, Ms. Plaskett is not allowed to vote in the House plenary.)

Before being elected to Congress, she served as an assistant district attorney in the Bronx and was a policy officer for the Department of Justice.

Mrs. Plaskett was born in Brooklyn, the daughter of Virgin Islands parents and graduated from American University’s Washington College of Law. After living in New York and Washington, she moved to the Virgin Islands and worked in the private sector.

In response to being named impeachment manager, Ms. Plaskett said she was “honored” and “humiliated” for taking responsibility.

“Donald J. Trump was and remains a clear and present danger to our republic, to our constitution and to the people of this nation,” she said in a statement on Jan. 12. “I will do my duty and defend our blessed country. “

Colorado

Elected to the House in 2018, Deputy Joe Neguse is the youngest and has the shortest tenure of the nine members chosen to sue Mr. Trump.

In 2019, shortly after his election to Congress, he supported Trump’s first impeachment. In a statement about his appointment as impeachment manager, Neguse said Trump’s perpetuation of “damaging misinformation about the integrity of election results” contributed to the Capitol riot on January 6.

Mr. Neguse serves as a member of the Chamber’s Judiciary Committee and the Chamber’s Progressive Committee.

Neguse’s parents fled Eritrea nearly four decades ago and came to the United States as refugees. They ended up settling in Colorado to raise Mr. Neguse and his sister. Mr. Neguse is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law and served on the university’s Board of Regents. He later led the state consumer protection agency.

Pennsylvania

Proponent of the first impeachment investigation against Trump, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean was quick to endorse a second impeachment after she and her colleagues hid in the Chamber gallery on January 6, while rebels threatened to invade the Chamber of Deputies.

Ms. Dean is serving her second term in the House and is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Prior to her time in Congress, she served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and graduated in law from Widener University. After opening a private practice, she started working as an assistant professor at La Salle University, where she taught writing and ethics.

On Monday, she wrote on twitter that presenting the impeachment article against Mr. Trump would help the nation heal after the Capitol riot.

“That is what it is all about – healing the wound of the insurrection and holding the ex-president accountable for his actions,” she wrote.

The report was contributed by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Zach Montague, Emily Cochrane and Aishvarya Kavi.

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