US Senate votes to move ahead with impeachment trial of Trump

WASHINGTON • Democrats in the US House of Representatives will lay out the case for convicting former president Donald Trump, as the Senate forges ahead with what could well become the fastest presidential impeachment trial in history.

After a compact debate on Tuesday over the constitutionality of the proceedings, senators narrowly voted to move ahead with the trial to decide whether Mr Trump is guilty of inciting a deadly mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan 6.

The central question facing lawmakers on Tuesday was whether a former president could be tried by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanours. By a 56-44 vote, senators found that the body did have jurisdiction to do so.

Both the House managers, led by Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, and Mr Trump's defence lawyers appear eager to conclude the proceedings as quickly as possible, particularly given that Mr Trump seems headed towards an all but certain acquittal.

This was reflected in the latest draft of the trial rules, which has senators scheduled to meet for a rare Sunday session if no verdict has been reached before then. The trial had already been set to continue into the weekend after Mr Trump's lawyers withdrew a request to break on Friday evening in observance of the Jewish Sabbath.

Mr Trump's first impeachment trial, last year, lasted only 21 days, but his second could move even faster.

Mr Trump is not attending his unprecedented second impeachment trial and is banned from tweeting, but his team is making sure Republicans feel his presence.

The former president was in his private quarters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as the proceedings unfolded on television, according to people familiar with the matter.

At the same time, his allies were actively tweeting and retweeting posts in Mr Trump's all-caps, exclamation-pointed style from multiple accounts, defending him as Democratic House managers laid out their case on the first day of his trial in the Senate.

The House prosecutors set the tone for their opening arguments on Tuesday by sharing an arresting video montage of the violence at the Capitol last month, laying out a chronological account of the rampage as it unfolded.

The 13-minute clip showed scenes of brutality and mayhem, laced with profanities, forcing some television networks to add content warnings and many of those present in the chamber to relive the assault on the Capitol on Jan 6 as they met to affirm then President-elect Joe Biden's election victory.

The House managers appear to have at least two goals: dredging up vivid and emotional memories from that day, and hammering home their point that Mr Trump was personally responsible for igniting the violence.

"Senators, this cannot be our future," said Mr Raskin, as he fought back tears. He described being locked inside the House chamber while colleagues called loved ones "to say goodbye" and his own daughter and son-in-law feared for their lives nearby.

"This cannot be the future of America," he continued. "We cannot have presidents inciting and mobilising mob violence against our government and our institutions because they refuse to accept the will of the people."

A hastily assembled legal team for Mr Trump offered an at times meandering defence, before ultimately arguing that trying the former president would violate the Constitution.

It began with a circuitous presentation from Mr Bruce Castor, who complimented the compelling case made by the managers and then launched into a speech that appeared to confuse and bore some senators in both parties.

His partner David Schoen was sharper, asserting that Democrats were driven by an "insatiable lust" to destroy Mr Trump.

Mr Schoen warned that they would instead damage the country by setting a new standard to pursue former officials.

Mr Schoen said: "Under their unsupportable constitutional theory, and tortured reading of the text, every civil officer who has served is at risk of impeachment if any given group elected to the House decides that what was thought to be important service to the country when they served now deserves to be cancelled."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is signalling to fellow Republicans that the final vote on Mr Trump's impeachment is a matter of conscience and that senators who disputed the constitutionality of the trial could still vote to convict the former president, according to three people familiar with his thinking. He had voted on Tuesday to declare it unconstitutional for the Senate to hear the case against Mr Trump.

NYTIMES, BLOOMBERG