Edited by: TJVNews.com
House Democrats opened Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial Tuesday showing the former president whipping up a rally crowd to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” against his reelection defeat, followed by graphic video of the deadly attack on Congress that came soon after, according to an AP report.
In an early test of the former president’s defense, Trump’s team lost a crucial bid to halt the trial on constitutional grounds. Senators confirmed, 56-44, their jurisdiction over the trial, the first of a president no longer in office. While six Republican senators joined the Democrats in proceeding, the tally showed how far prosecutors have to go to win conviction, which requires a two-thirds threshold of 67 senators, according to the AP report.
Tuesday’s vote was on whether a former president could be tried after leaving office.
The lead prosecutor told senators the case would present “cold, hard facts” against Trump, who is charged with inciting the mob siege of the Capitol to overturn the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Senators sitting as jurors, many who themselves fled for safety that day, watched the jarring video of Trump supporters battling past police to storm the halls, Trump flags waving, as was reported by AP.
“That’s a high crime and misdemeanor,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., in opening remarks. “If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there’s no such thing.”
AP reported that Trump is the first president to face impeachment charges after leaving office and the first to be twice impeached. The Capitol siege stunned the world as hundreds of rioters ransacked the building to try to stop the certification of Biden’s victory, a domestic attack on the nation’s seat of government unlike any in its history. Five people died.
Acquittal is likely, but the trial will test the nation’s attitude toward his brand of presidential power, the Democrats’ resolve in pursuing him, and the loyalty of Trump’s Republican allies defending him.
According to the AP report, Trump’s lawyers are insisting that he is not guilty of the sole charge of “incitement of insurrection,” his fiery words just a figure of speech as he encouraged a rally crowd to “fight like hell” for his presidency. But prosecutors say he “has no good defense” and they promise new evidence.
Security remained extremely tight at the Capitol on Tuesday, a changed place after the attack, fenced off with razor wire with armed National Guard troops on patrol, as was reported by the AP. The nine House managers walked across the shuttered building to prosecute the case before the Senate.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would not be watching the trial of his predecessor.
“Joe Biden is the president, he’s not a pundit, he’s not going to opine on back and forth arguments,” she said, according to the AP report.
With senators gathered as the court of impeachment, sworn to deliver “impartial justice,” the trial was starting with debate and a vote over whether it’s constitutionally permissible to prosecute Trump after he is no longer in the White House.
Trump’s defense team has focused on the question of constitutionality, which could resonate with Republicans eager to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behavior, as was reported by AP.
AP reported that lead lawyer Bruce Castor said that no member of the former president’s defense team would do anything but condemn the violence of the “repugnant” attack, and “in the strongest possible way denounce the rioters.”
Yet Trump’s attorney appealed to the senators as “patriots first,” and encouraged them to be “cool headed” as they assess the arguments.
At one pivotal point, AP reported that Raskin told the personal story of bringing his family to the Capitol the day of the riot, to witness the certification of the Electoral College vote, only to have his daughter and son-in-law hiding in an office, fearing for their lives.
“Senators, this cannot be our future,” Raskin said through tears. “This cannot be the future of America.”
Trump attorney David Schoen turned the trial toward starkly partisan tones, the defense showing its own video of Democrats calling for the former president’s impeachment.
Schoen said Democrats are fueled by a “base hatred” of the former president and “seeking to eliminate Donald Trump from the American political scene.”
It appears unlikely that the House prosecutors will call witnesses, in part because the senators were witnesses themselves. At his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump has declined a request to testify.
AP reported that presidential impeachment trials have been conducted only three times before, leading to acquittals for Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and then Trump last year.
Timothy Naftali, a clinical associate professor at New York University and an expert on impeachment, said in an interview, “This trial is one way of having that difficult national conversation about the difference between dissent and insurrection,” as was reported by AP.
AP reported that a similar question was posed late last month, when Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky forced a vote to set aside the trial because Trump was no longer in office. At that time, 45 Republicans voted in favor of Paul’s measure. Just five Republicans joined with Democrats to pursue the trial: Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
The House prosecutors argued there is no “January exception” for a president on his way out the door. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., referred to the corruption case of William Belknap, a war secretary in the Grant administration, who was impeached, tried and ultimately acquitted by the Senate after leaving office, as was reported by AP.
Trump’s case is hardly a run of the mill corruption charge, he said, but incitement of insurrection. If Congress stands by, “it would invite future presidents to use their power without any fear of accountability.”
AP reported that in filings, lawyers for the former president lobbed a wide-ranging attack against the House case, suggesting Trump was simply exercising his First Amendment rights and dismissing the trial as “political theater” on the same Senate floor invaded by the mob.
Because of the COVID-19 crisis, senators were allowed to spread out, including in the “marble room” just off the Senate floor, where proceedings are shown on TV, or even in the public galleries above the chamber. Most were at their desks on the opening day, however.
Presiding was not the chief justice of the United States, as in previous presidential impeachment trials, but the chamber’s senior-most member of the majority party, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, according to the AP report.
Under an agreement between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican leader Mitch McConnell, the substantive opening arguments will begin at noon Wednesday, with up to 16 hours per side for presentations. The trial is expected to continue into the weekend.
Trump’s second impeachment trial is expected to diverge from the lengthy, complicated affair of a year ago. In that case, Trump was charged with having privately pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, then a Democratic rival for the presidency.
This time, Trump’s “stop the steal” rally rhetoric and the storming of the Capitol played out for the world to see.
The Democratic-led House impeached the president swiftly, one week after the attack. Five people died, including a woman shot by police inside the building and a police officer who died the next day of his injuries.
David Schoen, a lawyer representing Donald Trump said Tuesday that Democrats are fueled by a “hatred” of Trump and fear that they will lose power. He says if the trial moves forward, it will make “everyone” look bad and other countries that wish the U.S. harm will watch with “glee.”
The NY Post reported that Schoen also argued that Democrats will “tear this country apart” and “open up new and bigger wounds” with the impeachment trial of the former president.
Schoen urged the Senate to dismiss as unconstitutional an article of impeachment against Trump for allegedly provoking the rampage the US Capitol rampage.
“This trial will tear this country apart, perhaps like we have only seen once before in our history,” Schoen said on the Senate floor, according to the NY Post report.
Trump’s team is arguing that the trial is not constitutional because Trump is out of office. Democrats, citing legal scholars and precedent from a secretary of war’s 1876 impeachment, have detailed both the historical precedent and the violence of the rioting to argue that it is constitutional.
The Post reported that Schoen additionally argued that a thorough investigation — such as one underway by retired Lt. Gen. Russell Honore — could exonerate Trump and show that the violence resulted from “preplanning” by people with an “agenda bearing no relationship to the claims made here.”
Schoen said that the trial was being waged by Democrats who don’t want a redux of Trump’s 2016 upset victory, according to the Post report.
“The House surely seeks to strip Donald Trump of his most highly cherished constitutional rights, including the right to be eligible to hold public office again should you so choose,” Schoen said, as was reported by the New York Post.
“A great many Americans see this process for exactly what it is: A chance by a group of partisan politicians seeking to eliminate Donald Trump from the American political scene and seeking to disenfranchise 74 million plus American voters and those who dare to share their political beliefs and vision of America. They hated the results of the 2016 election and want to use this impeachment process to further their political agenda,” he argued, according to the NY Post report.
“These elitists have mock them for four years. They’ve called their fellow Americans who believe in their country and their Constitution ‘deplorables’ and the latest talk is that they need to ‘deprogram’ those who supported Donald Trump and the Grand Old Party.”
Schoen, an Orthodox Jew last week had petitioned the Senate for a break in the trial on Friday afternoon in order to keep his weekly observance of the Jewish Sabbath which begins at sundown and lasts 25 hours. During that period, observant Jews are commanded to do no manner of work as the day is set apart for worship, rest and Torah study. At the trial on Tuesday, Schoen could be seen taking several sips of water throughout his opening arguments and each time he did so, he lifted his hand and placed it on his head while drinking. This was done in lieu of the fact that he chose not to wear a yarmulke (traditional head covering that Orthodox Jewish men wear).
Tuesday afternoon on Twitter, JTA’s Ron Kampeas posted in reference to Schoen putting his hand on his head, “People, don’t mock David Schoen for covering his head while he drank water. He was likely saying a blessing.”
CNN reported that Schoen subsequently withdrew his request to not hold the impeachment trial on the Jewish Sabbath, according to a person familiar with trial planning, which had altered the likely schedule for the proceedings.
CNN reported that in a letter written to Sens. Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, Schoen wrote, “Based on adjustments that have been made on the President’s defense team, I am writing today to withdraw my request so that the proceedings can go forward as originally contemplated before I made my request. I will not participate during the Sabbath; but the role I would have played will be fully covered to the satisfaction of the defense team.”
He also wrote, “I am advised that your response to my letter was to graciously accommodate my Sabbath observance and to set a schedule for the upcoming impeachment trial that meant suspending the trial for the Jewish Sabbath. This meant causing you to lose Friday evening and all day Saturday that you previously intended to have for the trial. I very much appreciated your decision; but I remained concerned about the delay in the proceedings.”
Schumer’s office had said over the weekend the Senate would accommodate the request from Schoen.
(AP, New York Post & CNN)
(Additional reporting by JV staff writer, Fern Sidman)
