An emotional second day of the trial ended in procedural chaos as a Republican senator objected to evidence citing him as a source for a conversation former President Donald J. Trump had during the Capitol attack that the crux of the matter.
In the last hour of arguments on Wednesday, Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island and one of the indictment administrators, said Trump wrongly called Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, in an attempt to get Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama. In describing the call, which was set out in news reports, Mr. Cicilline claims that Mr. Lee assisted when Trump Mr. Tuberville has asked for additional objections to the certification of President Biden’s election votes.
As Mr. Cicilline spoke, Mr. Lee could be seen writing in large letters angrily on a notebook: “That’s not what happened.” When the Democrats concluded their arguments for the day, Mr. Lee drafted an indictment that allows senators to raise questions during the trial, including the admissibility of evidence, and asked that the statements about him be considered false.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the presiding officer for the indictment, dismissed the request. Mr. Leahy, who consults with the Senate MP, pointed to a specific rule for this indictment, which allows House executives to include elements in their oral argument that were not in their original submission.
An apparently furious Mr. Lee called for an appeal.
“My point was to hit them because they were fake,” he said.
As some lawmakers, including West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin III, demanded that Mr. Lee explain why the description was false, the mumbling and confusion among senators and staff temporarily derailed the last moments of the day’s proceedings.
After a series of intense noises on the floor, where Mr. Lee could be heard and insisted he did not make the statements, Maryland Democrat Representative Jamie Raskin and the general manager agreed to take back the words. But he reserved the ability to raise the issue again and try it later in the trial.
“We are going to withdraw it tonight, and without any prejudice to the possibility of re-submitting it,” Mr. Raskin said. “We can debate it if we need to. But it’s not – it’s a lot of trouble over nothing, because it’s by no means critical to our cause. ”
While Mr. Speaking to Raskin, Lee could be heard throughout the Senate chamber shouting, “You are not the one called as a witness, sir.”