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Former President Trump has the dubious honor of being the only president to be impeached twice, and is also the first to face trial after stepping down, so the Senate will enter uncharted constitutional waters when the impeachment trial begins next month.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday night that Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial would begin on February 8. deliver the single impeachment article in the Senate on Monday January 25. Senators will be sworn in as members of the impeachment court the next day, Tuesday, January 26.
Impeachment officials and Mr. Trump’s lawyers will each have time to deliver legal briefs outlining their cases, before the trial formally begins two weeks after the article was first delivered to the Senate. The extra time allows both sides to prepare for their presentations and allows Senators to continue confirming nominees for President Biden’s cabinet before all regular Senate business comes to a halt while a trial is being conducted.
Even though the senators participated in an impeachment trial against Mr. Trump just over a year ago – the president was acquitted on February 5, 2020 – the next trial looks very different from the first.
The House impeached Mr. Trump for the first time on December 18, 2019, after several weeks of hearings. The two articles of indictment accused him of “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress”. The impeachment vote was divided almost entirely along partisan lines, with a single independent vote to impeach Mr. Trump and three Democrats voting against impeachment on at least one article.
The impeachment process in the House this year was a much faster, more bipartisan affair. Mr Trump was impeached a second time a week after urging his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn the election ahead of Congress’ scheduled tally of Electoral College results on January 6. Following his speech at the rally, a crowd of pro Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, killing five people. Congress did not return to count the Electoral College votes for six hours, and several Republican lawmakers again voted to overturn election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
Mr. Trump’s impeachment resolution was introduced to the House on January 11, with the House forgoing the traditional process of holding hearings and investigating any wrongdoing. There was only one article of impeachment this time, accusing Mr. Trump of “inciting insurgency.” Ten Republicans joined with 222 Democrats in voting to impeach Mr. Trump, bringing the vote to 232 to 197.
After Mr. Trump’s impeachment in 2019, President Nancy Pelosi did not announce those responsible for the impeachment until January 15, 2020, almost a month later. This year, Pelosi announced impeachment officials on the same day as Mr. Trump’s impeachment vote, 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 an “Abuse of Power” charge, the only Republican to vote to impeach Mr. Trump on either count.
This year’s trial is set to be very different. Some Republicans have argued that it is unconstitutional to remove a president who is no longer in office, but the Constitution does not specify whether a president must be in office to be removed.
It’s also unclear how long the second trial will last, or what evidence the two sides would choose to adduce. Pelosi argued Thursday that this impeachment trial would be different from Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial, which was sparked by an appeal he made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019, urging Ukraine to investigate the candidate at the time, Joe Biden. Mr. Trump defended his call for Zelensky as “perfect.”
“This year the whole world has witnessed the President’s incitement, the execution of his call to action and the violence that has been used,” Pelosi said. “I see a big difference between something we’ve all witnessed and the information you might need to justify an impeachment article based, in large part, 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 involved in scandals.
Although the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has traditionally presided over an impeachment trial under the constitution, Roberts may not want to participate in a second impeachment trial against Mr. Trump. In this case, Vice President Kamala Harris would preside over the trial as President of the Senate or, if she chooses not to, Interim Senate President Patrick Leahy would preside.
A two-thirds majority of the Senate, 67 votes, is required to condemn the president. Democrats hold 50 Senate seats and are unlikely to garner the support of 17 Republicans to condemn Mr. Trump, especially since he is no longer in office. However, more Republicans could vote to condemn Mr. Trump than in 2020, as he has been harshly criticized by some GOP senators for encouraging violence among his supporters on January 6.
If Mr. Trump were convicted by the Senate, then Congress would vote on whether to prevent him from running for elected office again. Only a simple majority is needed to prevent him from performing his duties.
Many Republicans argue that holding a trial after Mr. Trump leaves office is divisive, but Democrats argue that it is necessary to have an impeachment trial against Mr. Trump in order to show that a president must be accountable for his actions even in his last month of his mandate.
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