Former President Trump has the dubious honor of being the only president to be arrested twice, and he is also the first to face a trial after leaving office, leaving the Senate in uncharted constitutional waters enter when the indictment begins next month.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday night that the indictment for Mr. Trump will begin on Feb. 8. delivers the single article of accusation to the Senate on Monday, January 25th. Senators will be sworn in as members of the indictment court the following day on Tuesday 26 January.
Both the indictment managers and Mr. Trump’s attorneys will have time to file lawsuits over their cases before the trial formally begins two weeks after the article was first delivered to the Senate. The extra time allows both parties to prepare their presentations, and allows senators to confirm the candidacies of President Biden’s cabinet candidates before all regular Senate cases stop while a trial is taking place.
Although senators barely a year ago at an indictment for Mr. Trump participated – the president was acquitted on February 5, 2020 – the upcoming trial is going to be completely different from the first.
The House has Mr. Trump was first charged on December 18, 2019, after several weeks of hearings. The two articles of indictment accuse him of ‘abuse of power’ and ‘obstruction of Congress’. The vote to accuse was divided almost entirely along partisan lines, with only one independent vote to accuse Trump, and three Democrats voting against at least one article against accusation.
The indictment proceedings in the House this year were a much faster and more dual case. Mr. Trump was charged a second time a week after urging supporters to “fight like hell” to overthrow the election ahead of the scheduled count of congressional January 6 results. After his speech during the protest, a crowd of pro-Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, leading to the deaths of five people. Congress did not return for six hours to count the votes for Electoral College, and several Republican lawmakers still voted to reverse the election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
The resolution to accuse Trump was brought to the House floor on January 11, with the House holding the traditional process of hearings and investigating any transgressions. This time there was only one article of accusation that Mr. Trump accused it of “inciting rebellion”. Ten Republicans, along with all 222 Democrats, voted to accuse Trump, bringing the vote to 232 to 197.
After Trump was indicted in 2019, Speaker Nancy Pelosi only announced the accusation managers on January 15, 2020, almost a month later. This year, Pelosi announced the accusation managers on the same day as the vote to accuse Trump, January 13, 2021.
In 2020, senators were sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts as members of the indictment court on January 16, and the trial began on Tuesday, January 21. Mr. Trump was acquitted almost exactly two weeks later, on February 5th. Senator Mitt Romney, voted to convict the president of one charge, ‘Abuse of Power’, the only Republican who voted to oust Mr. Trump on one of the charges.
This year’s trial is expected to be very different. Some Republicans have argued that it is unconstitutional to accuse a president who is no longer in office but the Constitution does not specify whether a president must be in office to be arrested.
It is also unclear how long the second trial will last, or what evidence both parties would like to bring. Pelosi argued on Thursday that this indictment would differ from Mr. Trump’s first indictment, prompted by a call he made in 2019 to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to urge Ukraine to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden. Mr. Trump defends his call to Zelensky as ‘perfect’.
“This year, the whole world has witnessed the incitement of the president, the execution of his call to action and the violence used,” Pelosi said. “I do see a big difference between something we’ve all seen, versus the information you need to substantiate an indictment, based primarily on a call the president made and described as ‘perfect.’
Mr. Trump’s legal team has yet to be officially announced, but one of his lawyers will be South Carolina lawyer Butch Bowers, who has experience of politicians involved in scandals.
Although the chief justice of the Supreme Court has traditionally presided over an indictment in accordance with the constitution, Roberts may not want a second indictment against Mr. Trump does not participate. In that case, Vice President Kamala Harris will preside over the trial as president of the Senate, or, if she decides against it, the president of the Senate, pro tempore, will preside over Patrick Leahy.
A two-thirds majority in the Senate, 67 votes, is needed to convict the president. Democrats have 50 seats in the Senate, and it is unlikely they will gain the support of 17 Republicans to run for office. To convict Trump, especially since he is no longer in office. However, more Republicans may vote to convict Trump than in 2020, as he was harshly criticized by some GOP senators on January 6 for encouraging violence among his supporters.
As mnr. If Trump is convicted by the Senate, Congress will then vote on whether he may again bar him from seeking an elected office. Only a simple majority is needed to prevent him from taking office.
Many Republicans argue that it is a divisive issue to hold a trial after Mr. Trump has resigned, but Democrats argue that an indictment for Mr. To hold Trump to show that a president should be held accountable for his actions, even in his last month of office.