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Did the former president of the United States incite his followers to carry out the deadly assault on Congress in January?
The second Supreme Court trial of Donald Trump begins in the Senate on Tuesday.
“He gathered a crowd in Washington, stoked their anger and fired them, like a loaded cannon, down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
The paragraph is at the end of the 80-page petition that Democrats in the House of Representatives published before the Supreme Court process. In it, they plead that Trump, and Trump alone, be responsible for the violent attack on Congress on January 6. This, among other things, for persisting with false accusations of electoral fraud.
Trump’s side too announced his attitude. In a short, 14-page presentation, he claims that it is unconstitutional to put a resigned president before the Supreme Court, something that legal experts disagree on.
Trump’s lawyers also claim that the then president had every right to question the election result, citing his constitutionally protected freedom of expression.
However, when the trial begins at lunchtime on Tuesday, the “prosecutor’s side” is the first to come out. This means that the nine leaders of the process, appointed by the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, will speak first. They are led by Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin.
There is only one charge, it says “incitement to rebellion” and it was approved by the House of Representatives on January 13. But reviewing the 80-page evidence will take many hours and will evoke strong emotions.
Once this is done, it is Trump’s turn to have his say on the matter, something that can take so long. It will be long hours for the 100 senators, according to an old rule, they must work six days a week during national court cases.
When both sides They held their introductory statements, it is the turn of the senators, the judges, to ask questions. The House then decides whether to call witnesses, something that is expected to happen because Democrats control the Senate. Already beforehand, Jamie Raskin has asked Donald Trump to render an affidavit, something that his lawyers dismissed as “unconstitutional”.
Only at some point after the witnesses have heard this will it be relevant to vote on the question of guilt.
Had Donald Trump remained in the White House, the trial would have been led by Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. Now, instead, it will be the longest-serving Democrat in the Senate, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, 80, who will take over.
It is difficult to say how long the test will take. Last year’s Supreme Court trial ended in just under three weeks, but then the Senate was ruled by Trump’s Republican party.
At the same time is it is not in the interest of Democrats to postpone the process too long, unless they judge they have the required two-thirds majority for sentencing. The Senate has other pressing matters on the table, such as questioning and approving President Joe Biden’s ministers and handling the financial aid package he has presented.
And there are signs that Trump is free. Up to 45 senators, all of them Republicans, recently voted to have the Supreme Court indictment dismissed as unconstitutional. If they maintain their position, it will be impossible for the Democrats to muster the 67 votes necessary to cast if all the senators are in place.
During the trial, Donald Trump writes an unwanted story as the first president to appear before a Supreme Court twice. The previous trial began in December 2019 and concerned allegations that he had lobbied Ukraine’s leadership for his own political gain. It took him just under three weeks and he ended up dating.
