The historic second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is set to start in the US Senate on Feb. 9, but don’t expect him to make an appearance. The two sides in the case traded barbs this week after the House’s lead impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, sent a letter to Trump’s legal team asking that the former president testify under oath and submit to cross-examination either before or during the trial.
Trump lawyer Bruce Castor called the request a “publicity stunt in order to make up for the weakness of the House managers’ case” and said his client wouldn’t provide testimony. Raskin replied that “any official accused of inciting armed violence against the government of the United States should welcome the chance to testify openly and honestly — that is, if the official had a defense.”
Trump faces a single article of impeachment that accuses him of incitement of insurrection in regard to the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol, which left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer. In a speech that day in front of the White House, Trump urged supporters to march to the Capitol as Congress was preparing to certify Joe’s Biden’s election win.
Trump’s legal team has denied that he “incited the crowd to engage in destructive behavior” and has said a statement Trump made during his speech — “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” — had nothing to do with the storming of the Capitol.
To convict Trump, 17 Republicans would need to vote in favor, along with the 48 Democrats and two independents, to reach a two-thirds supermajority. Just five Republicans voted with Senate Democrats against a motion on Jan. 27 to declare the trial unconstitutional. (Trump’s legal team has argued that the Senate doesn’t have the jurisdiction to decide an impeachment trial, because Trump is no longer president. Others have said that’s not the case.)
More than 350 congressional staffers on Wednesday implored the Senate to convict Trump, describing the traumatic events that unfolded within the Capitol on Jan. 6 and saying Trump “broke America’s 230-year legacy of the peaceful transition of power when he incited a mob to disrupt the counting of electoral college votes.”
The House Democrats’ impeachment managers laid out their case to the Senate on Tuesday, arguing that the trial must go ahead to protect democracy and deter future presidents from provoking violence.
President Biden has said he supports the trial. Trump “was impeached by the House and it has to move forward, otherwise it would come off as farcical what this was all about,” Biden said on People TV, adding that abandoning the trial would “make a mockery of the system.”
The siege of the Capitol building sought to overturn the 2020 election results and halt the process of confirming Biden’s win in the Electoral College. Biden was confirmed after the riot and later inaugurated on Jan. 20. In a historic moment, 10 House Republicans broke with their party to vote in favor of impeachment.
The eventful pretrial period has seen Trump name a new legal team; Republican senators vote to have the trial declared unconstitutional; and the trial’s presiding officer, 80-year-old Sen. Patrick Leahy, enter the hospital for several hours after unspecified tests.
We’ll explain what we know about how the impeachment trial could progress, what it takes to convict or acquit, what’s at stake, and where the situation stands now. This story continues to be updated with new information.
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Current schedule of Trump’s impeachment trial
The trial is scheduled to unfold as follows:
- Jan. 25: Article of impeachment was presented to Senate
- Jan. 26: Senators were sworn in, summons for Trump issued
- Feb. 2: Trump’s answer to article of impeachment due, has been given
- Feb. 8: Trump’s pretrial brief due
- Feb. 9: House’s pretrial rebuttal brief due; trial begins
What would happen if Trump is convicted or acquitted
If the former president is convicted in the Senate, there will be an additional vote to bar him from running again (per the US Constitution Article 1, Section 3), which would prevent a possible presidential run in 2024. This vote would only require a simple majority, where Vice President Kamala Harris serving as president of the Senate would cast a tie-breaking vote if required.
Trump could also be disqualified from the benefits given to former presidents by the Post Presidents Act, including a Secret Service security detail, pension and yearly travel allowance.
According to the US Constitution, impeached presidents also can’t be pardoned.
If acquitted, Trump would have access to all the benefits of a former US president, including the option to run for public office.
What could happen during Trump’s impeachment trial?
The US Constitution lays out clear guidelines for impeaching a sitting president and other officers for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Trump’s trial is an unusual case, however. With his second impeachment, Trump, who as of Jan. 20 is a private citizen, is the first president to be impeached twice and the first to be tried after leaving office.
The Supreme Court Chief Justice would normally preside over the impeachment trial of a president. But because it’s not a trial of a sitting president, it will instead be presided over by Leahy, the new Senate President Pro Tempore, who as a senator is also still expected to be able to vote in the trial, too.
The House will prosecute the case, and the Senate will sit as jury and ultimately vote to convict or acquit.
To convict Trump, 67 senators — or two-thirds of the Senate — must vote in favor. Following Biden’s inauguration, the Senate is now made up of 48 Democrats, two independents who caucus with Democrats and 50 Republicans, for an even 50-50 split.
Why was Trump impeached in 2019?
Trump was impeached in December 2019 by the House, but the Republican-majority Senate acquitted him at the beginning of 2020.
His first impeachment involved articles accusing Trump of abusing power and obstructing Congress. The issue was Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, including a July 2019 phone call in which he appeared to be using US military aid as a bargaining chip to pressure Ukraine into investigating alleged ties between his political opponent Biden, Biden’s son Hunter and a Ukrainian gas company. The articles also charged Trump with interfering with a House inquiry into the Ukraine matter.