The senators are scheduled to be brought in for the commencement of the trial on Tuesday at one o’clock Eastern time, marking the formal start of the trial.
Republicans and Trump’s legal team have raised questions about the legitimacy of the trial due to Trump’s position as a former president, and that issue will be debated that day.
Each party will have 16 hours to present its case over the next several days. That might push the proceedings to Sunday or the following day, based on the Senate’s daily session length and weekend schedule.
The Senate will next discuss and vote on whether or not to allow witnesses to testify at the trial. While the majority leader of the Senate Charles E. Schumer & Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker.
Have both stated a desire for a shorter trial, impeachment managers like Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin have indicated that they want to call in witnesses. Trump is on pace to be convicted or acquitted next week if the jury rules against him by a simple majority.
Just Why Did Trump Be Impeached Once Again?
It was not on Congress’s agenda to consider removing Trump in his last days in office; then January 6 occurred. Supporters of Trump failed in their bid to prevent Congress from recognizing the votes from the electoral college that would have elected Joe Biden president.
Trump was brought to trial by the House of Representatives on January 13 for instigating the attempted uprising, an accusation that was supported by Democrats and even some Republicans.
The House’s submission is brief, but it makes three key claims, the most important being that Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” for the following reasons:
1 He made a fraudulent claim of election victory: “Shortly after the Joint Session of the Senate opened, President Donald Trump addressed a gathering of his electoral backers nearby. There he rehashed his debunked “we won this election and we did it by a landslide” assertion.
Second, he incited the violence by saying things like, “He knowingly made remarks that fostered — and anticipated resulted in — impending illegal action at the Capitol.” An angry mob, incited by President Donald Trump.
Also read: When Did Donald Trump Get His Start? Discover The Hidden Details Of His Life Here
Broke through security at the Capitol building, attacked law enforcement officers, threatened lawmakers and vice president Mike Pence, disrupted the Joint Session’s constitutional responsibility to certify election results, and committed other acts of violence, destruction, and sedition.
The report describes a conversation Trump made to Georgia’s secretary of state, when he urged him to “find” just sufficient votes to reverse Biden’s victory there.
If the president is found guilty of “Treason, Bribery, or other grave Crimes and Misdemeanors,” the House may impeach him or her, and the Senate will conduct a trial and decide whether or not to expel or convict them.
All 222 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted in support of impeachment because they believed Trump’s comments before the assault on the Capitol amounted to high crimes and misdemeanors.
Ten Republicans in the House, including the third-ranking Republican, Liz Cheney of Wyoming, voted to impeach Trump, marking a significant shift from the previous impeachment attempt.
The Following Step…
Since this is a trial in the Senate and not an instance of law, the House gets to define its own trial procedures, and Schumer and McConnell were almost revealing their agreement on the structure of the trial on Monday.
The accord asks for a vote on the trial’s legality to be held once again on Tuesday, January 26, for as long as four hours of discussion. At that time, 45 Republican senators had voted against proceeding with the trial.
After a brief break for lunch on Wednesday, the substantive legal arguments will begin. The Democratic managers of the impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives will deliver their case on the president first, followed by the defense presented by the former president’s attorneys.
If the impeachment managers want to bring in witnesses, they may do so by calling for a vote, which is permitted under the organizational resolution agreed by Schumer and McConnell.
Also read: Donald Trump, The 45th President Of The United States, Is Reportedly Very Wealthy?
Democratic leaders are concerned about dragging out the trial, despite the impeachment managers’ claims that they want to call witnesses. A majority vote in the Senate is all that’s needed to call witnesses.
In a letter submitted the week before the indictment was set to begin, Raskin and the remaining impeachment managers requested testimony from President Trump.
Trump’s legal team promptly denied the motion, labeling it a “public relations gimmick” and asserting that the proceedings itself is unlawful, a point they intend to emphasize throughout their defense.
Raskin warned that the defendant’s refusal to testify would give the prosecution “any and all freedoms, notably the right to argue at court whether your inability to testify draws a strong adverse inference regarding your activities (and inactivity) around January 6, 2021.”
The Senate will adjourn as an impeach court beginning at 5 p.m. on Friday and continuing into Sunday morning, at according to the request of Trump’s legal team, possibly laying the stage for arguments on Sunday afternoon.
The first trial against Trump started on January 16, 2020, and the president was found not guilty on February 5, 2020. Trump’s second trial may go on for a long period, particularly if Democrats are allowed to present witnesses.
Also read: New York City And Some Of Long Island Are Under A Red Flag Warning. This Is What I Mean!
Conclusion
He does not need to, and is not likely to. Keep in mind that Trump was just a few miles distant at the White House throughout the impeachment trial that ended a year ago. Although he had previously said that he would “seriously consider” testifying either in paper or in person, he did not show up at the time.