Trump’s impeachment trial could begin on inauguration day

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial could begin on inauguration day, just as Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in in an even more extraordinary end to the defeated president’s tenure in the White House.

The timing is not set and depends heavily on when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decides to forward the indictment article to the Senate. Democrats hoping to avoid interrupting Biden’s nomination have suggested holding back until the new president has a chance to get his administration started.

What is clear is that the upcoming trial will be unlike any other in the country’s history, the first for a president who is no longer in office. And, politically, it will force a count among some Republicans who have supported Trump throughout his presidency and widely allowed him to propagate false attacks on the integrity of the 2020 election.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is ready to consider impeachment after telling associates he’s done with Trump, but has not indicated how he will vote.

The Republican leader has great influence in his party even though calling the trial will be among his last acts as majority leader. Two new Georgian senators, both Democrats, are to be sworn in, leaving the chamber divided 50-50. This tilts the majority towards Democrats once Kamala Harris takes office, as the Vice President is a tiebreaker.

In a note to colleagues on Wednesday, McConnell said he had “not made a final decision on how I will vote” in a Senate impeachment trial.

Trump was impeached by the House on Wednesday following the murderous siege of the Capitol, the only president in US history to be impeached twice, after a pro-Trump mob stormed the building . The attack left the nation’s capital, and other named capitals, under tight security amid threats of more violence surrounding the inauguration.

Pelosi has not said when she will take the next step to pass the impeachment article, a single charge of inciting insurgency.

According to Senate procedure, the trial is expected to begin shortly after the House renders the indictment article. That could mean starting the trial at 1 p.m. on the day of the inauguration. The ceremony at the Capitol begins at noon.

After Trump’s first impeachment, in 2019, she withheld articles for some time to set the stage for Senate action.

Biden said the Senate should be able to split its time and do both – hold the trial and start working on its priorities.

With the Capitol secured by the armed troops of the National Guard inside and out, the House voted on Wednesday 232-197 to impeach Trump. The process unfolded at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just a week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the Capitol, prompted by the president’s calls to “fight like hell.” against the election results.

Ten Republicans fled Trump, joining Democrats who have said he must be held accountable and worryingly warned of a “clear and present danger” if Congress were to leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20. It was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment of modern times, even more so than against Bill Clinton in 1998.

The Capitol uprising stunned and angered lawmakers, who were sent to seek safety as the crowds descended, and it exposed the fragility of the national history of peaceful transfers of power.

Pelosi invoked Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, imploring lawmakers to respect their oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreigners “and nationals.”

She said of Trump: “He must go, he poses a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”

Held in the White House, watching the proceedings on TVTrump then released a video statement in which he made no mention of impeachment, but called on his supporters to refrain from any further violence or disruption of Biden’s nomination.

“Like all of you, I was shocked and deeply saddened by the calamity on Capitol Hill last week,” he said, his first condemnation of the attack. He called for unity “to move forward” and said: “The mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for. … None of my true supporters will ever be able to disrespect the police.

Trump was first impeached by the House in 2019 for his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted in 2020 to acquit.

No president has been convicted by the Senate, but Republicans have said that could change in the rapidly changing political environment as officials, donors, big business and others pull away from the defeated president.

Trump’s conviction and impeachment would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate.

Biden said in a statement after the vote that he hoped the Senate leadership “will find a way to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities for impeachment while also working on other pressing matters of this nation.”

Unlike his first time, Trump faces impeachment as a weakened leader, having lost his own re-election as well as the Republican majority in the Senate.

By pleading for the “serious crimes and misdemeanors” required in the Constitution, the four-page impeachment resolution draws on Trump’s own inflammatory rhetoric and the lies he spread about Biden’s election victory, including at a rally near the White House on the day of the Jan.6 attack on the Capitol.

Impeachment resolution also aims to prevent Trump from running again.

A Capitol Police officer died of injuries sustained in the riot and police shot and killed a woman during the siege. Three other people have died in what authorities have called medical emergencies. The riot delayed the electoral college’s vote count, which was the last step in finalizing Biden’s victory.

Ten Republican lawmakers, including GOP third-ranked House leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, voted to impeach Trump, dividing the Republican leadership and the party itself.

Cheney, whose father is the former Republican vice president, said of Trump’s crowd-calling actions that “there has never been a greater betrayal by a president” of his office.

The president’s strong popularity with voters in GOP lawmakers still had some influence, and most House Republicans voted not to impeach.

Trump would have been furious at the perceived disloyalty of McConnell and Cheney.

Security was exceptionally tight at the Capitol, with tall fences around the complex. Metal detector projections were needed for lawmakers entering the House chamber, where a week earlier lawmakers huddled inside as police, guns, barricaded rioters’ door.

The impeachment bill is inspired by Trump’s false claims about his electoral defeat to Biden. Judges across the country, including some appointed by Trump, have repeatedly dismissed cases challenging election results, and former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump ally, said there was no no sign of widespread fraud.

While some have questioned the president’s impeachment so close to the end of his term, there is precedent. In 1876, during the Ulysses Grant administration, Secretary of War William Belknap was indicted by the House on the day he resigned, and the Senate called a trial months later. He was acquitted.

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Associated Press editors Kevin Freking, Andrew Taylor Alan Fram, Zeke Miller, and Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.