House executives will open up to the prosecution of Donald Trump for “incitement to insurrection” by portraying the deadly assault on the American Capitol in harsh and cinematic detail, rekindling the chaos and trauma they experienced on January 6 for senators.
The historic second indictment opens Tuesday on the Senate floor that was invaded by rioters, with a debate over the constitutionality of the proceedings. In a letter filed Monday, Trump’s lawyers described the case as “political theater,” arguing that the Senate “does not have a constitutional jurisdiction” to try a former president after he leaves office. not.
Exactly one week after the attack on the Capitol, Trump became the first president to be charged twice by the House of Representatives. This week, he becomes the first former president to stand trial. It will take 17 Republicans to join all Democrats in the Senate to convict Trump, which will make conviction highly unlikely.
House Democrats will nonetheless, when opening arguments begin later this week, try to force senators to see the assault on the Capitol as the culmination of Trump’s long campaign to reverse the outcome of the election he lost to Joe Biden. Relying on video and audio recordings, indictment leaders, led by Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, will try to weaken the anger and outrage expressed by many members of Congress in the aftermath of the riot, which tried to prevent them to count votes of the electoral college and thereby count. to disrupt the transition of power.
In a 78-page statement submitted to the Senate on Monday, Trump’s lawyers outlined a twofold rebuttal, also arguing that his rhetoric was in no way responsible for the attack on the Capitol.
The senators will wrestle with the constitutional question on Tuesday when they are expected to debate and vote on it. Although scholars and a majority of senators say they believe the trial is constitutional, many Republicans have embraced the technical argument that a former president cannot be tried for “high crimes and misdemeanors” as a way to justify support for Trump’s acquittal without apparently approving of his behavior.
In their own submission on Monday, the House of Representatives rejected the arguments of Trump’s lawyers and promised to hold Trump accountable for the “most serious constitutional crime ever committed by a president.”
“Presidents swear a holy oath that they will take from their first day in office until the last day,” they wrote. “There is no ‘January exception’ to the constitution that allows presidents to abuse power in their last days without accountability.”
In a vote last month, all but five Republican senators voted to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional. Yet Charles Cooper, a leading conservative advocate, rejected the view in a Wall Street Journal report published Sunday.
Because the constitution also enables the Senate to disqualify former federal officials from ever holding public office again, Cooper wrote: “it contradicts the logic of proposing that the Senate be prohibited from prosecuting and prosecuting former officials. found guilty”.
The trial begins just over a year after Trump was first charged with putting Ukraine under pressure to investigate Joe Biden’s family. He was acquitted by the Senate.
According to a poll by ABC News / Ipsos released on Sunday, Americans are now more supportive of condemning Trump. It has been found that 56% of Americans believe that the Senate should condemn Trump and bar him from the future office.
Although the exact framework of the trial remains uncertain, subject to negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Republican leader of the House, Mitch McConnell, it is expected to move much faster than Trump’s first trial.
Under a draft agreement between the leaders, obtained by the New York Times, the opening arguments would begin Wednesday, with up to 16 hours for each side. At the request of Trump’s lawyers, the proceedings for the Jewish Sabbath will be broken on Friday night and resumed on Sunday.
Housekeepers are expected to call witnesses, a key issue during Trump’s first trial. The former president rejected their request to testify. A decision that Raskin said speaks volumes and clearly states an adverse inference in support of his debt.
The administration has indicated that it intends to address a comprehensive case and track down Trump’s extraordinary efforts to reverse his defeat, including a call in which he pressures the Secretary of State of Georgia to find enough votes to Biden’s victory there. When it became clear that all other roads were closed, they would argue, Trump drew his attention to the certification vote on Capitol Hill, urging supporters to attend a rally to protest the outcome.
On that occasion, Trump begged them to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol to register their dissatisfaction – words that his defense team will lead are protected by the first amendment.
The House executives claim that “it is impossible to imagine the events of January 6 without President Trump creating a gunpowder barrel, hitting a match and then seeking personal benefit from the ensuing devastation.”