When former president is Trump retried for impeachment, it will be Senator Patrick Leahy, the senate’s president pro tempore, who will chair, in place of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
“The president pro tempore has historically been in charge of the impeachment trials of non-presidents in the Senate,” Leahy confirmed in a statement Monday. “When he leads an impeachment lawsuit, the president takes an extra special oath pro tempore to do justice impartially under the constitution and laws. It is an oath that I take extremely seriously.”
Roberts chaired Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial, as stipulated in the constitution. But the constitution is silent on who presides over senatorial proceedings against a former president, and a former president has never been through an impeachment trial.
A Leahy assistant said this weekend that it was not the senator’s preference to lead the trial. But the Vermont senator also said he considers his role as president pro tempore “one of the highest honors and most serious responsibilities of my career.”
“When I chair the impeachment case of former President Donald Trump, I will not deviate from my constitutional and sworn obligations to deal fairly with the trial, consistent with the constitution and the laws,” said Leahy.
He noted in an interview with MSNBC on Sunday that he also has another job at the same time – as chairman of the credit committee, he will also be closely involved in negotiations on President Biden’s COVID-19 economic aid package.
Senators will be sworn in this week before former President Trump’s trial. The article of accusation will be delivered to the Senate at 7:00 pm, and then presented and read to the Senators. The impeachment managers of the House and Mr Trump’s defense team will then have two weeks to prepare for the trial, and the trial will begin the week of February 8.
The House charged Mr. Trump on Jan. 13 on a charge of instigating an uprising. A week earlier, Mr Trump had told a crowd of his supporters to “fight like hell” while Congress was counting electoral college votes, the final step in completing Mr Biden’s victory. A mob of his supporters then stormed the Capitol, sending lawmakers to flight and delaying the electoral vote count by nearly six hours. Five people died as a result of the melee.