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Donald Trump’s defense attorneys have failed in their attempt to stop the impeachment process against the former US president in the Senate from the start. They had argued that the process was unconstitutional because Trump was no longer in office.
However, in a vote on Tuesday night (local time), the majority of the United States Senate considered the process to be constitutional: six Republican senators voted with all 50 Democratic senators in the chamber. They paved the way for further proceedings: this means that prosecutors and defense attorneys can present their arguments in the matter as of Wednesday.
Trump supporters forcibly stormed Congress headquarters in Washington on January 6. Five people were killed in the riots, including a policeman. With the attack, the attackers tried to stop a meeting in which Congress was supposed to certify the electoral victory of Trump’s successor, Joe Biden. Trump had recently incited his supporters at a rally that they had stolen his election victory. Among other things, he said at the time: “If you don’t fight like the devil, you will have no more land.”
Democrats accuse him of “inciting a riot” and have initiated an impeachment process against him in the House of Representatives, supported by ten Republican deputies. This procedure is managed and decided by the Senate. The House of Congress assumes the role of a court. The Senate began the process on Tuesday with a debate on the constitutionality of the process.
The vote on the constitutionality of the procedure indicates the low probability of conviction
The main argument of Trump’s defense attorneys is that the Senate trial is unconstitutional because it is directed against an individual. Trump left office on January 20 when Biden took office. David Schoen of Trump’s defense team said individuals cannot be removed from office. Common sense suggests that. Schoen accused the Democrats of only initiating the process to “remove Trump from the political scene.” This is an abuse of the impeachment procedure for political purposes.
The Democratic Chief Prosecutor for the House, Jamie Raskin, argued that a president must answer for his actions until the last day in office. Anything else would be extremely dangerous. Democrats also point out that the House of Representatives had already decided to open the procedure on January 13, that is, a week before Trump’s departure from office.
With the action against Trump, he also wants to ensure that the Republican is barred from future offices at the federal level. This would mean that he would be denied a presidential candidacy in 2024. A guilty verdict for Trump would also be a prerequisite for suspension from office. So far, however, it is not foreseeable that the necessary two-thirds majority will be produced in the Senate to convict Trump. To do this, 17 Republicans would have to join the 50 Democratic senators.
The low chances of a conviction are also shown in the vote on the constitutionality of the process: 44 Republican senators described the process as non-constitutional. It is difficult to imagine that almost a dozen of them could turn this very process around in the end and vote for a conviction of their party colleague.
The procedure is expected to only take a few days.
Starting Wednesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys will have enough time to present their arguments for 16 hours each for two days.
Prosecutors gave a preview of their strategy Tuesday, recalling the violent attack on Capitol Hill with disturbing words and images. They then presented a video with dramatic scenes from January 6 and reported very personally how they lived that day. In the coming days, they should do everything in their power to bring back memories of that January day through photographs and stories in which senators had to find safety from an angry mob. The procedure is expected to only last a few days and possibly only last until the weekend or the beginning of the next week.
Trump goes down in history as the first president of the United States against whom two impeachment proceedings were initiated in the House of Representatives during his term. In the first trial he had to answer in the so-called Ukraine affair for abuse of power and obstruction of congressional investigations. In February 2020, however, he was finally acquitted of all charges, with the majority of his Republicans in the Senate at the time.
