Report By Tanya Singh:
Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial, on a charge of inciting last month’s deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol, opens on Tuesday with a debate over the constitutionality of the Senate trying a president after he has left office. Hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 after a fiery speech in which the then-president repeated his false claims that his Nov. 3 election defeat was the result of widespread voting fraud and told them “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
The mob attacked police, sent lawmakers scrambling for safety and interrupted the formal congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory after Trump had spent two months challenging the election results. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer. Trump’s lawyers plan to open the trial on Tuesday by questioning whether the U.S. Constitution allows the Senate to hold an impeachment trial for a president after he has left office, as Trump did on Jan 20. Most Senate Republicans have embraced that argument, which strongly suggests that Democrats will be unable to garner the two-thirds majority needed to convict in the 100-member Senate. Democrats and many legal scholars reject the Republicans’ constitutional interpretation.
Senate Democrats are expected to prevail in Tuesday’s vote on the constitutionality of the trial. A Republican effort to block the trial on those grounds was defeated 55-45 last month. Trump, a Republican, was impeached by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on Jan 13 on a charge of inciting an insurrection, becoming the only president to have been impeached twice and the only former president to face a Senate trial.
Four Days of Arguments: On Wednesday, the prosecution and defense will turn to the merits of the charge. They have a total of 32 hours evenly divided over no more than four days to present their cases. The arguments would begin midday on Wednesday. The proceedings could be extended further as senators would have time to question both sides. f House managers want to call witnesses or subpoena documents, the Senate would have to vote to allow those. Trump lawyers and House managers could question witnesses – a far more exhaustive procedure than Trump’s first impeachment trial, which had no witness testimony.
Trump’s defense is also anchored in the argument that he was exercising his right to free speech in urging backers to “fight” to overturn the election result. His lawyers said in a pretrial document that Trump was speaking in a “figurative sense,” adding: “Notably absent from his speech was any reference to or encouragement of an insurrection, a riot, criminal action, or any acts of physical violence whatsoever.”