The indictment of former US President Donald Trump will begin in the Senate in the second week of February, a few days after the House of Representatives sent the indictment against him, Democratic Majority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer said on Friday.
This timeline reflects an agreement with the Republican minority in the Senate that will allow the former president’s legal team to prepare and the upper house to move forward on other crucial issues, including the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden.
The House of Representatives accused Trump a second time on January 13, a week before he left office. This time, he is chosen to root his supporters in taking over the Capitol on January 6. The chaos that day left five dead, including a police officer, and shocked the country and the world.
Schumer said Trump’s dismissal file will be delivered and read in the Senate on Monday at 19:00 (00:00 GMT). The 100 senators will be sworn in as jurors the next day.
Members of the lower house appointed by President Nancy Pelosi as prosecuting managers (actually prosecutors) and members of Trump’s defense team, who will continue to be appointed, will have time to write their legal reports.
“Once the briefs are written, the presentation of the parties will begin in the week of February 8,” Schumer told his Senate colleagues.
In the meantime, the Senate will decide on nominations for Biden’s cabinet “and the covid aid bill that would provide aid to millions of Americans suffering during this pandemic,” Schumer explained.
“Healing and unity will only come if there is truth and responsibility, and that will provide this process,” he said.
Members will decide whether or not Trump should be convicted of what the US Constitution describes as “serious crimes and misdemeanors.”
Trump was charged with a single charge of “incitement to insurrection” during a speech in Washington on January 6 at noon, before a crowd of his followers stormed Congress during the certification of Democrat Biden’s election victory.
– “Unprecedented speed” –
The delay in the trial is the result of an agreement reached by Schumer with Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell has been a close ally of Trump in Congress for all four years of his term. But he harshly rebuked the outgoing president for repeatedly trying to overturn election results and inciting protesters. And he left the door open for a possible vote to condemn Trump.
The influential Republican senator proposed postponing the trial until February, arguing that Trump needs time to hire lawyers and prepare his defense.
On Friday, McConnell recalled the “unprecedented speed” of the lower house trial, where Trump was indicted after just one day of debate.
Trump is the only American leader to have been indicted twice by the House of Representatives.
In December 2019, the Republican president was charged with “abuse of power” and “obstruction of the proper functioning of Congress.”
Trump has been accused of asking Ukraine to investigate alleged corruption related to its then-political rival Biden, in exchange for unblocking crucial military aid to the country at war.
The Senate, with a Republican majority, acquitted him on February 5, 2020 after two weeks of trial.
Now that the Senate is made up of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans and a two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump, at least 17 Republicans should vote against the former president to get a conviction.
If that happens, there will be a subsequent vote on Trump’s ban on holding public office in the future, which would prevent him from running in 2024, as he suggested. Only a simple majority is needed to disable it.
In addition to Trump, two other presidents have been indicted: Democrats Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868.
Republican Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 to avoid being charged with the Watergate scandal.