E-Paper
US Senate votes to proceed with Donald Trump’s impeachment trial
Six Republicans joined 50 Democrats in the evenly split 100-member Senate, clearing the way for the trial to begin on Wednesday
The US Senate on Tuesday voted 56-44 to proceed with the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump, rejecting his defence team’s contention that it is not constitutional to try a president after he has left office.
Six Republicans joined 50 Democrats in the evenly split 100-member Senate, clearing the way for the trial to begin on Wednesday.
House impeachment managers — nine Democratic members of the House of Representatives — will make their case for Trump’s conviction for inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6.
They have 16 hours to make their case, spanning the next two days. Trump’s defence team will follow, also for 16 hours.
“Their argument is that if you commit an impeachable offence in your last few weeks in office, you do it with constitutional impunity,” Representative Jamie Raskin, the lead House manager, said while opening the arguments.
He was referring to the Trump defence team’s contention that a president cannot be tried after leaving office.
He said, “You get away with it. In other words, conduct that would be a high crime and misdemeanor in your first year as president, and your second year as president, and your third year as president, and for the vast majority of your fourth year as president, you can suddenly do in your last few weeks in office without facing any constitutional accountability at all.”
He added, “This would create a brand new January exception to the constitution of the United States of America.”
Raskin later returned during the arguments by Democrats, making an emotional appeal, “Senators, this cannot be our future. This cannot be the future of America.”
Democrats also cited precedence from US and British history of senior officials impeached or tried after leaving office.
William Belknap, a former US secretary of war, was impeached after leaving office in 1876, but was acquitted. Warren Hastings, the governor general of Bengal during the reign of the East India Company, faced impeachment proceedings in 1786 after leaving service, and was acquitted in a trial that went on from 1788 to 1795.
Trump’s lawyers - Bruce Castor and David Schoen - condemned the January 6 violence at the Capitol, but they argued it is unconstitutional to try a president who is no longer in office.
They contended that the case against Trump is based on partisan politics and also said that Democrats had been obsessed with impeaching him.
“This trial will tear this country apart, perhaps like we have only seen once before in our history,” said Schoen, referring to the American civil war.
Trump’s lawyers, especially Castor, were criticised for their underwhelming performance, even by Republicans. “President Trump’s team was disorganised. They did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand. And when they talked about it, they kind of glided over, almost as if they were embarrassed,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, one of six Republicans who voted to hold the trial constitutional.
