from PBS.org
After the House delivered the impeachment article, senators were sworn in Tuesday as members of an impeachment proceeding. An official summons for the trial will also be sent to Trump, the first former president to undergo an impeachment trial.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Senate’s president pro tempore, was sworn in Tuesday to preside over the trial. Chief Justice John Roberts presided over the last impeachment trial because Trump was a sitting president. But with Trump out of office, the task falls to Leahy, the longest-serving Senate Democrat, instead of Roberts or Harris.
Trump must respond to the charge by Feb. 2, the same day by which House impeachment managers are required to submit their pre-trial brief outlining their case. Trump’s defense team must submit its pre-trial brief by Feb. 8.
The opening arguments of the trial are set to start Tuesday, Feb. 9. However, before they begin, the Senate must approve rules for how the trial will be conducted.
How the trial will be conducted
Trump’s first impeachment trial, which took place early last year, offers some clues for how the upcoming trial could proceed.
In that case, Trump was charged by the House with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for his efforts to pressure Ukraine’s president to investigate alleged corrupt business dealings by Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Republicans controlled the Senate, and approved rules on a party-line vote that gave each side 24 hours over three days to make their case. That portion of the trial lasted six days.
After hearing from both sides, senators spent three days debating the case. Then the Senate voted — also on a party-line GOP vote, without any support from Democrats — not to extend the trial by subpoenaing documents or witnesses.
Five days later, the Senate acquitted Trump on both impeachment charges. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the only senator who crossed party lines, casting a vote to convict Trump for abuse of power.
The coming trial will be different from the last in some important ways, due to the new balance of power in the Senate and the unprecedented nature of trying a former president. The first trial lasted roughly three weeks from start to finish. But Democrats have speculated the upcoming trial could be wrapped up much faster, since Trump’s criticism of the election and rally on Jan. 6 — and the attack itself — played out in public and will likely require less investigation to uncover misconduct than the previous trial.
There is reason “to expect that it would go faster,” Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., one of the House impeachment managers, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program Sunday.
This time, with Democrats in control of the Senate, Schumer will have final say on how the trial proceeds. But since the Senate is split 50-50, Schumer has less wiggle room than McConnell did last year, when Republicans held 53 seats and could afford to lose three votes during the course of the trial.
Schumer could push through a party-line vote when setting the trial rules if he can’t strike a deal with his Republican counterpart. But all 50 members of the Democratic caucus would need to approve of his terms in order to give Vice President Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote.
Finding consensus among Democrats may prove difficult. At least one, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has criticized the impeachment effort. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and other Democrats have floated the idea of invoking the 14th Amendment as an alternative method to block Trump from running for federal office in the future.
If the Senate convicts Trump it could then vote separately to bar him from ever holding public office again. But a conviction requires 67 votes, and it’s considered unlikely that at least 17 Republicans will join every member of the Democratic caucus to vote to convict Trump.
