The US Senate voted largely along party lines Tuesday to confirm it iswithin their power to try former President Donald Trump even though healready left office.
The Senate’s 56-44 vote saw six Republicans join ranks with all thechamber’s Democrats in agreeing the process is in-line with the USConstitution.
Senators earlier heard arguments from both the House managers prosecutingthe case, and Trump’s defense team, as they weighed whether or not therewas standing for the case against the former president to go forward.
Impeachment trials are intended to result in a president’s removal fromoffice if the individual is convicted of committing high crimes andmisdemeanors, the legal threshold prosecutors must meet.
Trump’s defense sought to argue that the trial was moot since Trump leftoffice following his Nov. 3 electoral defeat. Lead defense attorney BruceCastor acknowledged Trump “was removed by the voters” despite his client’srepeated insistence that the election was “stolen” from him via widespreadvoter fraud.
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That defense, however, was rebutted ahead of its formal roll out byprosecutors who said it would create a “January exception,” allowing for anoutgoing president to act without regard for the law in his final days inoffice.
“It’s an invitation to the president to take his best shot at anything hemay want to do on his way out of the door, including using violent means tolock that door, to hang on to the Oval Office at all costs, and to blockthe peaceful transfer of power,” said Congressman Jamie Raskin, the leadprosecutor on the case. “The January exception is an invitation to ourfounders’ worst nightmare.”
Trump stands accused of inciting the fatal Jan. 6 Capitol riot thatresulted in five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer. Two other lawenforcement officers who sought to defend the federal legislature that daytook their lives in the aftermath.
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Raskin, who is a professor of Constitutional law, said the argument forconviction that his team would be making is going to be based on “cold,hard facts.” He then proceeded to play a 20-minute video chronicling theevents that day, starting with Trump’s remarks to his supporters justminutes before the Capitol was besieged.
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Trump told the masses at the nearby Ellipse to “fight like hell” aslawmakers prepared to carry out a constitutionally-mandated count ofElectoral College votes that was a key step to US President Joe Biden’sinauguration.
“Our country has had enough, and we will not take it anymore,” he told thegathering of supporters, many of whom later flooded the Capitol aslawmakers were certifying election results. “We will stop the steal.”
The prosecution’s video showed the chaos that followed in grisly detail, asTrump’s supporters overran barricades, clashed violently with police andsmashed their way through the Capitol’s windows. Inside they could be heardrepeatedly asking where “they” are, likely referring to Democraticlawmakers and former Vice President Mike Pence, for whom a gallows waslikely erected outside the Capitol.
The insurrectionists repeatedly chanted “hang Mike Pence” inside theCapitol after he rejected Trump’s call to reject the vote count.
“The president was impeached by the US House of Representatives on January13th for doing that,” Raskin said after the video played. “If that’s not animpeachable offense then there’s no such thing.”
