U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts is not interested in presiding over another indictment against former President Trump against the former president.
There were rumors that Roberts would bow before the Senate hearing, which would preside over Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., A Senate source told Fox News that the president of the body is chairman in cases where the accused individual is no longer president of the US is not.
Schumer told MSNBC that the decision belongs to Roberts.
“According to the Constitution, the chief justice is chairing a sitting president. So it was up to John Roberts whether he wanted to chair a president who is no longer sitting, Trump, and he does not want to do that,” Schumer said.
House Democrats filed the indictment against Trump with the Senate late Monday for the start of his historic trial, but Republican senators have eased their criticism of the former president and calls to convict him of the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.
President Joe Biden gave the Senate Democrats a beating when he said in an interview that it looks like they will not be able to convict Trump for allegedly inciting a crowd before a riot at the Capitol.
Biden told CNN that he does not believe the Senate Democrats will get 17 Republicans to vote to convict the former president. He said his opinion might have been different if Trump had remained in office for a few more months.
“The Senate has changed since I was there, but it hasn’t changed that much,” Biden said. However, Biden said he agrees with the Democrats that the trial “should take place”.
Fox News’ Tyler Olson and Associated Press Contributed to This Report