Former President Trump has the dubious honor of being the only president to be impeached twice, and he is also the first to face trial after taking office, so the senate will enter uncharted constitutional waters when the impeachment trial next month starts.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday night that the impeachment process for Mr. Trump would begin on February 8. deliver the only article of accusation to the Senate on Monday, January 25. Senators will be sworn in as members of the impeachment court the next day, Tuesday, January 26.
Both impeachment managers and Mr. Trump’s attorneys will each have time to issue legal instructions setting out their cases before the trial formally begins two weeks after the article was first handed over to the Senate. The extra time allows both sides to prepare their presentations, and allows senators to confirm President Biden’s cabinet nominees before all regular Senate affairs come to a halt while a trial is in progress.
Although senators participated in an impeachment trial for Trump just a year ago – the president was acquitted on February 5, 2020 – the upcoming trial appears to be very different from the first.
The House first charged Mr. Trump on December 18, 2019, after several weeks of hearings. The two impeachment articles accused him of “abuse of power” and “congressional obstruction.” The vote to impeach was almost entirely split along partisan lines, with only one independent vote to impeach Mr Trump, and three Democrats voted against impeachment for at least one article.
The impeachment procedure in Parliament this year was a much faster and more twofold affair. Trump was impeached a second time a week ago after urging supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn the election, pending the January 6 electoral college results scheduled. Following his speech at the rally, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, killing five people. Congress did not return for six hours to count the votes of the Electoral College, and several Republican lawmakers still voted to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
The resolution to impeach Mr. Trump was brought to the House of Representatives on Jan. 11, with the House abandoning the traditional process of holding hearings and conducting an investigation into any misconduct. There was only one impeachment article this time, accusing Mr. Trump of “Inciting Insurrection.” Ten Republicans joined all 222 Democrats to vote to impeach Mr. Trump, bringing the vote to 232 to 197.
After Mr. Trump was impeached in 2019, speaker Nancy Pelosi did not reveal the impeachment managers until January 15, 2020, almost a month later. This year, Pelosi announced impeachment managers on the same day as the vote to impeach Mr. Trump, January 13, 2021.
In 2020, senators were sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts as members of the impeachment court on January 16, and the trial began on Tuesday, January 21. Mr. Trump was acquitted almost exactly two weeks later, on February 5. Senator Mitt Romney, voted to convict the president of “abuse of power,” the only Republican to vote to impeach Mr. Trump on both charges.
This year’s trial is expected to be very different. Some Republicans have argued that it is unconstitutional to impeach a president who is no longer in office, but the constitution does not specify whether a president must be in office in order to be impeached.
It’s also unclear how long the second trial will take, or what evidence both parties would choose to include. Pelosi argued on Thursday that this impeachment procedure would be different from Mr Trump’s first impeachment procedure, which was triggered by a 2019 appeal to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urging Ukraine to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden. Mr. Trump defended his appeal to Zelensky as “perfect.”
“This year, the whole world has testified to the president’s exhortation, the implementation of his call to action, and the violence used,” said Pelosi. “I see a big difference between something we’ve all witnessed and what information you need to back up an article of impeachment, based largely on an appeal the president made and described as ‘perfect.’
Mr. Trump’s legal team has yet to be officially announced, but one of his attorneys will be South Carolina attorney Butch Bowers, who has experience representing politicians mired in scandals.
While the Supreme Court Chief Justice traditionally presides over impeachment proceedings in accordance with the Constitution, Roberts may not want to participate in a second impeachment trial against Mr Trump. In that case, Vice President Kamala Harris would chair the process as Senate President, or, if she chose not to, Senate President, pro tempore, Patrick Leahy, would sit.
A two-thirds majority of the Senate, 67 votes, is required to condemn the president. Democrats hold 50 seats in the Senate and are unlikely to get the backing of 17 Republicans to condemn Trump, especially since he is no longer in office. However, it is possible that more Republicans will vote to condemn Trump than in 2020, as he has been harshly criticized by some GOP senators for encouraging violence among his supporters on Jan. 6.
If Mr. Trump were convicted by the Senate, Congress would vote on whether or not to re-elect an elected office. It only takes a simple majority to prevent him from holding office.
Many Republicans argue that holding a trial after Mr. Trump resigns is divisive, but Democrats argue that it is necessary to hold an impeachment trial for Mr. Trump to show that a president must be accountable for his actions, even in his last month of office.