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The measure gave the green light to formally start the first presidential impeachment.
During the ceremony, nine House impeachment leaders quietly carried the document into the same ornate halls of Congress invaded by Trump supporters on January 6 and handed it over to the Senate.
Chief Congressman Jamie Raskin read the indictment against Trump in the Senate Hall, where the former president continues to have significant support from Republican senators.
“Donald John Trump has committed serious crimes and misdemeanors, inciting violence against the United States government,” Raskin said. “It has threatened the sustainability of the democratic system, has interfered in the peaceful transfer of power and has endangered it on equal terms.”
An unprecedented second impeachment of Trump, 74, was announced on January 13 in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Senate court is due to begin in the second week of February.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that 100 members of the Senate taking the oath of office will be sworn in on Tuesday and that Trump will receive a subpoena.
Democrats and Republicans agreed to postpone the president’s trial for two weeks so that Trump, accused of “inciting rebellion,” can prepare his defense and the Senate can focus on approving the cabinet nominations of new President Joe Biden.
The Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, presided over Trump’s previous Senate trial, which ended with the acquittal of Republicans, but this time a president will be appointed to lead the process. for the moment.
President for the moment they are the oldest senators from the party with a majority in the Senate (in this case, the Democrats). Patrick Leahy, 80, elected to the Senate in 1974, is currently acting president.
Republican Senator John Corny said there was a conflict of interest in a situation where one senator serves as judge and juror, but another senator from the party, Lindsey Graham, dismissed the fears.
“I’ve known Pat for a long time,” Graham said. “I believe and hope that he is honest.”
Congressional Republicans hinted at the weekend that Democrats may have a hard time condemning Trump for the invasion of Congress by his supporters earlier this month. Five people died in those riots.
Influential figures in Trump’s party reject political and constitutional arguments, raising doubts that Democrats, with 50 out of 100 Senate seats, will get 17 Republican votes and a two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump.
“I think this court is stupid. I think it gives the opposite result.” Anyway there is a fire in this country, and here it is as if we are taking gasoline and getting into it, “Republican Marco Rubio told Fox News Sunday. , chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
He acknowledged that Trump, who had asked thousands of his supporters to go to Washington and protest Joe Biden’s electoral victory in Congress, “has some responsibility for what happened.”
Yet further incitement to the issue could only hurt the country, said Rubio, who competed with Trump for presidential candidate status during the 2016 Republican primary election.
“Must be held accountable”
Leahy stated that she would take an oath of fairness.
“President for the moment he has historically led non-presidential impeachment proceedings in the Senate, ”Leahy noted.
“In the impeachment process, the president for the moment grants an additional special oath to administer impartial justice in accordance with the Constitution and the law, he said. “It is an oath that I take very seriously.”
The 78-year-old Biden follows a policy of non-interference in the impeachment process to put Trump in the past, curb the coronavirus epidemic and jumpstart the economy. Still, he told CNN Monday night, “I think it has to happen.”
Democrat Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee at the time, said Monday that the former president “must be brought to justice.”
“We must not allow Donald Trump to shirk responsibility for inciting a disastrous uprising on our Capitol,” Nadler stressed.
„[Atstovų] The House has done its job in impeaching Trump, and now the Senate must complete the task of ensuring that he can never directly harm the United States again, ”the congressman added.
During the impeachment process in the House of Representatives, ten Republicans, along with their fellow Democrats, voted against Trump, who was charged with robbing a crowd to storm the Capitol on Jan.6 when Congress met to confirm. Biden’s victory in the November 3 election. .
A riot killed a police officer and a protester fired by the police, and three more people died without providing timely assistance.
A year ago, the House of Representatives accused Trump of using his official position to try to pressure Ukraine to find material that compromises Biden. However, the former president was acquitted by the Senate, where only one Republican, Mitt Romney, voted in favor of the conviction.
“Prison ticket”
While more Republican senators could vote to convict Trump this time, at least 17 of them are unlikely to take that step.
The 100 Democratic seats in the Senate have 50 seats, and it takes two-thirds of the senators’ votes to convict Trump, who remains an influential Republican figure.
If Trump is convicted, the Senate could bar him from holding public office. In that case, he could not run for president in 2024.
Several Republicans have condemned plans to carry out a trial against the former head of state in the Senate, and some argue that the institution has no authority to try an individual, as Trump has become.
Schumer rejected such an argument during a Senate debate on Monday.
“It just came to our notice then. He’s stressed out.” The theory that the Senate can’t prosecute former officials would spell a constitutional “free ticket” for any president who commits a crime. “
Trump has repeatedly claimed to have won the presidential election without providing concrete evidence, and on January 6 invited his supporters to join a rally in Washington, where lawmakers were approving the results of the vote at the time.
After the head of state delivered a speech, thousands of his supporters stormed the Capitol, clashed with police and forced lawmakers into hiding.
Trump is now in danger of suing on several fronts, but on Monday he welcomed the news that the Supreme Court had dismissed lawsuits alleging that he had violated laws prohibiting the president from receiving income from foreign sources.
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