Senator Rand Paul says Chief Justice Roberts will not take Trump’s trial

As Democrats embark on an impeachment trial after President Donald Trump’s tenure, a key question remains: Will Chief Justice Roberts take the case?

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul says he won’t – making the exercise “false partisan impeachment,” lawmaker told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Friday.

Paul claimed that Roberts “said privately that he was not supposed to come unless it was an indictment of the President.”

According to the United States Constitution, “when the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice presides” – a requirement that is not made for any other impeachment case.

As lawmakers debated the legitimacy of the impeachment, the Biden administration continued to hold off on the issue.

“Congress is going to do what Congress does,” Ashley Etienne, Vice President Kamala Harris’ communications director, told MSNBC on Saturday.

One thing Trump’s enemies in Congress seem to be doing is grabbing hold of the straws – even reverting to a post-Civil War amendment.

Several Democrats have floated the idea of ​​punishing Trump with the 14th Amendment rule that excludes those who “have engaged in an insurgency or a rebellion” from their elected office.

“I certainly think there is a 14th Amendment avenue separate from impeachment,” Senator Chris Murphy told The Hill.

But the restriction, which was drafted to prevent former Confederate loyalists from regaining power as the United States struggled for reconstruction, has not been used since – and would spark a lengthy legal battle if Congress attempted to push it through. invoke, say legal experts.

Meanwhile, with Trump out of the White House, Republicans like Paul continued to scoff at impeachment as “an illegitimate proceeding.”

Roberts, who has not publicly said whether he will preside over the trial, still has two weeks to rule.

After House of Representatives impeachment officials read their impeachment articles on Monday accusing Trump of inciting the deadly January 6 riot, the Senate will postpone the trial until the week of 8. February so President Biden can get his administration going. Majority leader Chuck Schumer announced on Friday.

If Trump is sentenced by a two-thirds majority in the Senate, Schumer could call for a second vote, which requires only a simple majority, preventing him from re-holding elected office.

But the conviction will require the votes of at least 17 Senate Republicans – an increasingly remote possibility, as more party members rally to Paul’s argument that only a sitting president can be. dismissed.

“It’s going to be difficult to have even a handful” of GOP defectors, Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) Told CNN – because “everyone thinks it’s kind of a constitutional problem.”