WASHINGTON – The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has pumped new life into a long-running discussion among government policy makers over whether the U.S. needs a new domestic terrorism law.

The debate stems from what many see as a yawning gap in the existing law: the absence of a standalone statute that criminalizes domestic terrorism.

While U.S. law makes it a crime to provide “material support” to a foreign terrorist organization, there is no comparable law that makes domestic terrorism a federal crime, even though individual acts committed by domestic terrorists may be illegal.

Now, in the wake of the January 6 insurrection blamed in part on members of far-right groups involved in violence, proponents of a new domestic terrorism law say it is now time to act.

In this image from video, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, speaks on the floor of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 23, 2020. (House Television via AP)

“I think if anything, what happened on January 6 just cries out” for passage of a domestic terrorism law, Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said during a hearing on domestic terrorism last week.

Yet the push for a new domestic terrorism law faces stiff opposition from civil rights groups as well as many members of Congress who are concerned about civil liberties. These critics say there are already plenty of laws on the books with which to charge domestic terrorism cases.

Among the fiercest opponents of it in Congress is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive Democrat who as vice chairwoman of a House panel has investigated domestic terror laws.

FILE – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks on the House floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 23, 2020.

“Our problems on Wednesday [January 6] weren’t that there weren’t enough laws, resources, or intelligence. We had them, & they were not used,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted January 9 in response to calls for enactment of a domestic terrorism law.

Current federal law defines domestic terrorism as criminal acts in the United States “dangerous to human life” that appear intended “to intimidate or coerce a civilian population,” to influence government policy “by intimidation or coercion,” or to “affect the conduct of a government” by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping. 

However, there are no criminal penalties attached to the statute. As a result, while the FBI routinely opens “domestic terrorism” investigations into attacks by far-right extremists, the bureau relies on other criminal statutes such as those dealing with murder and assault to charge defendants. Of the more than 200 supporters of then-President Donald Trump arrested to date in connection with the storming of the Capitol, none has been charged with domestic terrorism; the allegations against them range from illegally entering the Capitol to assaulting police officers and threatening lawmakers.

On June 4, 2019, Elizabeth Neumann, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of Threat Prevention and Security Policy, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.

The lack of a law criminalizing domestic terrorism forces prosecutors to “go the extra mile,” Elizabeth Neumann, a former DHS official in the Trump administration, said during the House hearing. For example, she noted that last year the FBI linked two members of the far-right Boogaloo Bois to the Palestinian Hamas in order to charge them with conspiracy to provide “material support” to a foreign terrorist organization. 

“It just shows you … that if we get them tied to a foreign ideology or group, it is easier for us to prosecute,” she said. “Let’s make their jobs easier.”

It is also unjust to treat domestic and foreign terrorism unequally, Neumann said.

“It doesn’t make sense why, if you commit a crime in the name of white supremacy of if you commit a crime in the name of [Islamic State] ideology, that you get more jail time ISIS versus a violent white supremacy act,” she said.

The charge of material support for a foreign terrorist organization carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Democrat Joe Biden pledged to “work for a domestic terrorism law.” After the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Biden characterized the rioters as “insurrectionists” and “domestic terrorists.” Later, during his inaugural address, Biden vowed to defeat what he described as a “rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism.”

But now that he is president, Biden faces the challenge of defining who qualifies as a domestic terrorist and what new authorities — if any — should be provided to law enforcement officials to crack down.

The White House says that the issue of domestic terrorism is under review within the administration and that no decisions have been made.

The post-January 6 response to the statutory gap has ranged widely, with some satisfied with the status quo while others propose to ban certain groups as domestic terrorist organizations, according to terrorism expert Colin Clarke of the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consultancy.

The latter approach is seen by some as a long shot given concerns that it would be unconstitutional.

“If you’re talking about effectively banning the existence of groups that are purely domestic groups, I hope everyone can see that that’s a potentially terribly dangerous power for the government to have in the American political system,” said Bobby Chesney, a University of Texas law professor who has testified on the topic before Congress.

FILE – In this March 15, 2017, file photo, acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington.

To avoid this concern, a middle-ground proposal by Mary McCord, a former top Justice Department official, would make domestic terrorism “an offense that people and organizations are prohibited from materially supporting.” 

Like other proponents of a new domestic terrorism law, McCord argues that it’s important to put domestic terrorism on the same “moral plane” as international terrorism.

“It would help educate the public that “terrorism” does not refer only to “Islamist extremist terrorism,” McCord testified before a House panel last year.

In Congress, recent proposals to address domestic terrorism have ranged from a 2019 bill proposed by Democrat Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, that would extend the death penalty to domestic terrorism cases to a bipartisan piece of legislation that would require the FBI, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to create dedicated domestic terrorism offices without criminalizing the act.

The latter was reintroduced in the Senate and the House on January 19.

“After the attack on our Capitol, I hope that Congress can finally come together and do something to address domestic terrorism in America as quickly as possible,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said in a statement at the time.

Outside Congress, the renewed push for a new domestic terrorism law has pitted FBI agents against civil rights advocates.

The FBI Agents Association, which represents more than 14,000 agents, has long urged Congress to make domestic terrorism a federal offense.

“Passage of domestic terrorism legislation is a necessary action that would help make it clear that political violence — no matter the ideology or the person behind it — is unacceptable,” Brian O’Hare, President of FBIAA, said in a statement.

But civil rights groups remain adamantly opposed to criminalizing domestic terrorism because of its potential abuse by law enforcement agencies.

“The ACLU opposes any legislation that would enhance existing domestic terrorism powers … as well the creation of additional domestic terrorism related crimes,” said Manar Waheed, senior legislative counsel with the group.

She noted that there are more than 50 federal offenses on the books that prosecutors can use to charge domestic terrorism cases.

“There is absolutely no need for a new law,” Waheed said.

The FBI said it would leave it to Congress to work with the Justice Department on any domestic terrorism legislation.

“As we always have, the FBI will continue to use every legally authorized tool and statute afforded to us to both meet and combat the threats we face,” the bureau said in a statement to VOA.

Asked whether the Department of Justice would support legislation that would make domestic terrorism a federal crime, DOJ spokesman Marc Raimondi said via email, “We are not going to get ahead of the Domestic Violent Extremist review currently underway by ODNI, DHS and DOJ (FBI).”

WASHINGTON – Prosecutors at former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial began to lay out their case against him on Wednesday, saying he was “no innocent bystander” to the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol last month as lawmakers certified Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November election.

Congressman Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, and other Democratic lawmakers said Trump laid the groundwork for the storming of the Capitol over a period of weeks leading up to the election with dozens of unfounded claims that the only way he could lose was if the election was rigged against him.

Raskin contended that Trump, by urging hundreds of his supporters to “fight like hell” in confronting lawmakers at the Capitol on January 6, ignited the mayhem that left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer.

“He incited this attack,” Raskin told the 100-member Senate that will decide whether Trump should be convicted of a single article of impeachment brought by the House of Representatives. It accuses him of “incitement of insurrection.”

WATCH TRIAL LIVE

“He clearly surrendered his role as commander in chief and became the inciter in chief,” Raskin argued. He contended that Trump, now out of office after his four-year term ended and Biden was inaugurated January 20, “was singularly responsible” in exhorting his supporters to try to upend Biden’s victory.

Hundreds of his supporters – perhaps about 800, according to law enforcement authorities — rampaged through the Capitol, breaking windows, bashing doors, ransacking some congressional offices and scuffling with police. Dozens of the rioters, many of whom bragged on social media about storming into the two chambers of Congress, have been charged with criminal offenses as the investigation of the chaos continues.

The House impeachment managers showed dozens of Twitter comments and video clips in which Trump claimed election fraud and urged his supporters to show up in Washington January 6 as Congress met to certify the 306-232 Electoral College vote favoring Biden.

“Will be wild!” Trump tweeted.

After nearly four hours of mayhem, lawmakers certified the Biden victory in the middle of the night early on January 7, making Trump the fifth U.S. president in the country’s history to be defeated after a single term in office.

FILE – Supporters of then-President Donald Trump riot in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021, before storming the building.

Now, Raskin said, in 2021 the usually routine certification of U.S. presidential election results will be remembered as “a day that will live in disgrace.”

Congressman Joe Neguse, another House impeachment manager, said that in rallying supporters before the storming of the Capitol complex, Trump “wanted to stop the transfer of power even though he had lost the election.”

“This attack was provoked by the president,” Neguse said. “It was predictable and foreseeable. He had the power to stop it and he didn’t.”

The House impeachment managers have up to 16 hours over Wednesday and Thursday to make their case before Trump’s lawyers get an equal amount of time.

Trump’s lawyers say that he bears no responsibility for the attack on the Capitol, a worldwide symbol of American democracy.

Instead, they say that Trump’s rhetoric amounted to normal political discourse and was protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech.

FILE – With the White House in the background, former President Donald Trump, seen on a giant screen, speaks to his supporters during a rally in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021, ahead of many in the crowd storming the U.S. Capitol.

The Senate voted 56-44 on Tuesday to move ahead with the trial, rejecting Trump’s claim that it was unconstitutional to try him on impeachment charges since he has already left office.

 Raskin said Tuesday that not holding the trial would create a “dangerous” new “January exception” during which future U.S. presidents could act with impunity in their final weeks in office.

“It’s an invitation to the president to take his best shot at anything he may want to do on his way out the door,” Raskin said.

The Democrats showed the Senate a dramatic video montage establishing a timeline of the chaotic events on January 6.   

Trump lawyer Bruce Castor Jr. rejected the notion of a “January exception” in which future presidents would be immune as “nonsense.”  He said that if Trump committed any offenses, “arrest him,” now that he is a private citizen and no longer immune from prosecution.

Castor quoted the Constitution saying that conviction on impeachment charges “shall not extend further than removal from office,” an impossibility since Trump’s term has already ended.   

The 56-44 vote to proceed with the trial, in which six Republicans joined all 50 Democrats, showed that Trump remains likely to be acquitted. A two-thirds majority is needed to convict Trump, meaning 17 Republicans would have to vote with the Democrats.

Whatever the outcome, Trump is the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.

Trump declined Democrats’ offer to testify in his defense and is not expected to attend the trial. The high-profile proceeding, broadcast across the country, could last a week or longer.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats prosecuting the impeachment of former U.S. President Donald Trump are set to lay out their case Wednesday as they try to convince Senators serving as jurors to convict Trump of inciting insurrection at the Capitol last month. 

The House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense will each have 16 hours over the course of two days to present their case, after which Senators will be given a total of four hours for questioning. 

WATCH TRIAL LIVE

The Senate voted 56-44 Tuesday to hear the case. 

The vote followed four hours of impassioned arguments from the two sides, with Democratic lawmakers arguing Trump must be held accountable for his actions and the former president’s defense contending an impeachment trial after the end of his term is unconstitutional. 

Congressman Jamie Raskin, the Democrat’s lead impeachment manager, said Tuesday that not holding the trial would create a “dangerous” new exception for a president to act with impunity in their final weeks in office. 

“It’s an invitation to the president to take his best shot at anything he may want to do on his way out the door,” Raskin said. 

Acting Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett, right, leads Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., second from right, the lead Democratic House impeachment manager, and other impeachment managers, through the Rotunda to the Senate, Feb. 9, 2021.

Video of January 6 violence 

The Democrats showed the Senate a dramatic video of the chaos that unfolded in the Capitol on January 6 when a pro-Trump mob stormed past authorities and sent lawmakers scrambling for safety.   

The attack, which ended with five people dead, came shortly after members of Congress started to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the November election.  Trump had spent two months alleging voter fraud, and at a rally that day outside the White House he continued, telling his supporters, “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”  He encouraged them multiple times to march to the Capitol. 

Raskin recalled that his chief of staff, daughter and son-in-law were forced to barricade themselves in House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office.  He said they hid under a desk while rioters banged on the door, “placing what they thought were their final texts and whispered phone calls to say their goodbyes. They thought they were gonna die.”  

FILE – Supporters of then-President Donald Trump riot in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

Raskin said every day a president is in office “he’s prohibited from committing high crimes and misdemeanors” — the standard for conviction on impeachment charges — and cannot avoid responsibility for the deadly mayhem at the Capitol because he now is out of office.   

Trump lawyer Bruce Castor Jr. rejected the premise that not holding the trial would create a loophole for avoiding responsibility, saying, “The idea of a January exception is nonsense.”  He said that if Trump committed any offenses, “arrest him,” now that he is a private citizen and no longer immune from prosecution.    

Castor quoted the Constitution saying that conviction on impeachment charges “shall not extend further than removal from office,” an impossibility since Trump’s term has already ended.   

“The object of the Constitution has already been achieved,” Castor said. “He was removed by the voters.”   

Trump’s other lawyer, David Schoen, accused Democrats of pursuing the impeachment case against him “to eliminate Donald Trump from the American political scene.” He said “pure, raw, misguided partisanship” was at the heart of the Democrats’ case. 

Last month, Republican Senator Rand Paul, a staunch Trump supporter, attempted to block the trial on the same constitutional grounds, but five Republicans joined all 50 members of the Democratic caucus in voting 55-45 to proceed with the trial.   

In the new vote Tuesday, another Republican, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, also voted to go ahead with the trial.  

In this image from video, the vote total on the question of the constitutionality of the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is displayed in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 9, 2021.

Tuesday’s vote to proceed was expected. 

Last month, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a staunch Trump supporter, attempted to block the trial on the same constitutional grounds, but five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting 55-45 to proceed with the trial.  

In the new vote Tuesday, another Republican, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, also voted to go ahead with the trial. 

WATCH: Senate vote

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However, it will take a two-thirds majority for conviction, meaning at least 11 more Republican senators would have to reverse their votes for the prosecution to prevail in the 100-member body.    

Paul says there is a “zero chance of conviction.” If Trump is convicted, the Senate, on a simple majority vote, could bar him from ever holding federal office again.      

In 1876, the Senate conducted an impeachment trial of a Cabinet secretary who resigned moments before he was impeached. Trump was impeached by the House while still in office.      

The senators deciding the impeachment case against the single-term president are in a unique position: Many of them were witnesses themselves to the chaos as they fled the Senate chamber. 

Trump, the only U.S. president to be twice impeached, was acquitted a year ago when he was accused of soliciting the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of the election.   

A week after the storming of the Capitol, the House voted 232-197, with 10 Republicans joining all 222 Democrats, to accuse Trump of “incitement of insurrection.” Then, on January 20, Biden was inaugurated and Trump went to his Florida estate where he has stayed since.   

Trump has declined a request from Democrats to testify in his defense and is not expected to attend. The trial could last a week or longer. 

WASHINGTON – House Democrats prosecuting the impeachment of former U.S. President Donald Trump are set to lay out their case Wednesday as they try to convince Senators serving as jurors to convict Trump of inciting insurrection at the Capitol last month. 

The House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense will each have 16 hours over the course of two days to present their case, after which Senators will be given a total of four hours for questioning. 

The Senate voted 56-44 Tuesday to hear the case. 

The vote followed four hours of impassioned arguments from the two sides, with Democratic lawmakers arguing Trump must be held accountable for his actions and the former president’s defense contending an impeachment trial after the end of his term is unconstitutional. 

Congressman Jamie Raskin, the Democrat’s lead impeachment manager, said Tuesday that not holding the trial would create a “dangerous” new exception for a president to act with impunity in their final weeks in office. 

“It’s an invitation to the president to take his best shot at anything he may want to do on his way out the door,” Raskin said. 

Acting Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett, right, leads Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., second from right, the lead Democratic House impeachment manager, and other impeachment managers, through the Rotunda to the Senate, Feb. 9, 2021.

Video of January 6 violence 

The Democrats showed the Senate a dramatic video of the chaos that unfolded in the Capitol on January 6 when a pro-Trump mob stormed past authorities and sent lawmakers scrambling for safety.   

The attack, which ended with five people dead, came shortly after members of Congress started to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the November election.  Trump had spent two months alleging voter fraud, and at a rally that day outside the White House he continued, telling his supporters, “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”  He encouraged them multiple times to march to the Capitol. 

Raskin recalled that his chief of staff, daughter and son-in-law were forced to barricade themselves in House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office.  He said they hid under a desk while rioters banged on the door, “placing what they thought were their final texts and whispered phone calls to say their goodbyes. They thought they were gonna die.”  

FILE – Supporters of then-President Donald Trump riot in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

Raskin said every day a president is in office “he’s prohibited from committing high crimes and misdemeanors” — the standard for conviction on impeachment charges — and cannot avoid responsibility for the deadly mayhem at the Capitol because he now is out of office.   

Trump lawyer Bruce Castor Jr. rejected the premise that not holding the trial would create a loophole for avoiding responsibility, saying, “The idea of a January exception is nonsense.”  He said that if Trump committed any offenses, “arrest him,” now that he is a private citizen and no longer immune from prosecution.    

Castor quoted the Constitution saying that conviction on impeachment charges “shall not extend further than removal from office,” an impossibility since Trump’s term has already ended.   

“The object of the Constitution has already been achieved,” Castor said. “He was removed by the voters.”   

Trump’s other lawyer, David Schoen, accused Democrats of pursuing the impeachment case against him “to eliminate Donald Trump from the American political scene.” He said “pure, raw, misguided partisanship” was at the heart of the Democrats’ case. 

Last month, Republican Senator Rand Paul, a staunch Trump supporter, attempted to block the trial on the same constitutional grounds, but five Republicans joined all 50 members of the Democratic caucus in voting 55-45 to proceed with the trial.   

In the new vote Tuesday, another Republican, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, also voted to go ahead with the trial.  

In this image from video, the vote total on the question of the constitutionality of the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is displayed in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 9, 2021.

Tuesday’s vote to proceed was expected. 

Last month, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a staunch Trump supporter, attempted to block the trial on the same constitutional grounds, but five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting 55-45 to proceed with the trial.  

In the new vote Tuesday, another Republican, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, also voted to go ahead with the trial. 

WATCH: Senate vote

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Download File 360p | 10 MB 480p | 14 MB 540p | 18 MB 720p | 41 MB 1080p | 77 MB Original | 215 MB Embed Copy Download Audio

However, it will take a two-thirds majority for conviction, meaning at least 11 more Republican senators would have to reverse their votes for the prosecution to prevail in the 100-member body.    

Paul says there is a “zero chance of conviction.” If Trump is convicted, the Senate, on a simple majority vote, could bar him from ever holding federal office again.      

In 1876, the Senate conducted an impeachment trial of a Cabinet secretary who resigned moments before he was impeached. Trump was impeached by the House while still in office.      

The senators deciding the impeachment case against the single-term president are in a unique position: Many of them were witnesses themselves to the chaos as they fled the Senate chamber. 

Trump, the only U.S. president to be twice impeached, was acquitted a year ago when he was accused of soliciting the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of the election.   

A week after the storming of the Capitol, the House voted 232-197, with 10 Republicans joining all 222 Democrats, to accuse Trump of “incitement of insurrection.” Then, on January 20, Biden was inaugurated and Trump went to his Florida estate where he has stayed since.   

Trump has declined a request from Democrats to testify in his defense and is not expected to attend. The trial could last a week or longer. 

U.S. President Joe Biden says while the impeachment trial of his predecessor is under way in the Senate, he will be focused on alleviating the suffering from the coronavirus pandemic.

“I am not,” Biden replied when asked by reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office whether he is watching the trial. “We have already lost over 450,000 people, and we could lose a whole lot more if we don’t act and act decisively and quickly. … A lot of children are going to bed hungry. A lot of families are food insecure. They’re in trouble. That’s my job. The Senate has their job, and they’re about to begin it, and I am sure they are going to conduct themselves well.”

The president added he will not be saying anything further about impeachment of former President Donald Trump, whom Biden defeated in last November’s election.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Feb. 9, 2021, in Washington.

“He’s not a pundit. He’s not going to opine on the back-and-forth arguments, nor is he watching them,” replied White House press secretary Jen Psaki, when asked earlier in the day by a reporter about the historic proceedings, which began Tuesday.

Psaki was also asked how Biden, as the current officeholder, could not weigh in on whether it is constitutional for the Senate to put a former president on trial and whether it could set a dangerous precedent for the presidency.

The press secretary did not give a direct answer.

“He is going to wait for the Senate to determine the outcome of this,” she said during the White House daily media briefing. “His view is that his role should be currently focused on addressing the needs of the American people, putting people back to work, addressing the pandemic.”

Focus on issues, not impeachment

The White House is seeking to portray the president as focused on such issues while the impeachment trial takes place.

The White House has arranged visits by Biden to the Defense Department and the National Institutes of Health this week. Next Tuesday, the president is to travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he will participate in a televised town hall-style event.

During the February 16 live broadcast, the president will answer questions about his administration’s efforts “to contain the coronavirus pandemic and jump-start a troubled economy,” according to CNN, which will air the event. The cable network explained it will include “an invitation-only, socially distanced audience.”

Administration officials say there is no political advantage for Biden, a former senator and vice president, to inject himself into the impeachment trial, which would be seen as a political move so early in his presidency and at a time when Americans are looking for him to focus on alleviating the suffering caused by the pandemic.

Mob failed to stop certification

The House of Representatives last month impeached Trump for inciting violence against the government on January 6, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol complex to try to halt the certification of electoral votes affirming Biden as the winner of last November’s election.

Biden “has put out multiple statements conveying that what the (former) president did and his words and his actions, and of course the events of January 6, were a threat to our democracy,” Psaki said Tuesday.

Trump is the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. The first time was in December of 2019 when the House voted he had abused his power and obstructed Congress, stemming from a July 2019 phone call in which he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into Biden.

The Senate acquitted Trump on both counts last year.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to proceed with the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump on a charge that he incited insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last month by urging hundreds of his supporters to confront lawmakers as they met to certify that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated him in last November’s election. 

The 56-44 vote to start hearing evidence in the case at mid-day Wednesday came after four hours of impassioned arguments about the constitutionality of holding the trial while Trump is no longer in office.  

Democratic lawmakers from the House of Representatives prosecuting the case against Trump said the former U.S. leader must be held to account for his actions in his final weeks in office. 

Trump’s two lawyers contended that the country’s Founding Fathers, in writing the Constitution, only intended for impeachment to be used as a tool to remove a president from office, an impossibility in Trump’s case since his four-year term ended January 20 as Biden was inaugurated.  

Acting Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett, right, leads Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., second from right, the lead Democratic House impeachment manager, and other impeachment managers, through the Rotunda to the Senate, Feb. 9, 2021.

As Trump’s impeachment trial opened, Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, one of the House impeachment managers prosecuting Trump, said that if Trump is not held accountable, it “would create a brand-new January exception” where future presidents would not face consequences for any wrongdoing during their final month in office.  

Video of January 6 violence 

The Democrats showed the Senate a dramatic video of the chaos that unfolded in the Capitol on January 6, with rampaging protesters storming past authorities and lawmakers scrambling to avoid the violence, shortly after they had started to certify that Biden had defeated Trump in last November’s election.  

FILE – Supporters of then-President Donald Trump riot in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump, who urged hundreds of supporters to confront lawmakers at the Capitol in a last-ditch effort to upend the election results, was impeached a week later and left office January 20 as Biden was inaugurated as the country’s 46th president.  

Raskin said that every day a president is in office “he’s prohibited from committing high crimes and misdemeanors” — the standard for conviction on impeachment charges — and cannot avoid responsibility for the deadly mayhem at the Capitol because he now is out of office.  

But Trump’s lawyers sharply disputed the legality of the Senate holding an impeachment trial on the allegation by the House of Representatives that Trump engaged in “incitement of insurrection” by urging his supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.” 

Trump lawyer Bruce Castor Jr. said, “The idea of a January exception [for presidential responsibility for his actions] is nonsense.” He said that if Trump committed any offenses, “arrest him,” now that he is a private citizen and no longer immune from prosecution.  

Castor quoted the Constitution saying that conviction on impeachment charges “shall not extend further than removal from office,” an impossibility since Trump’s four-year term in the White House has already ended.  

“The object of the Constitution has already been achieved,” Castor said. “He was removed by the voters.”  

Trump’s other lawyer, David Schoen, accused Democrats of pursuing the impeachment case against him “to eliminate Donald Trump from the American political scene.” He said “pure, raw, misguided partisanship” was at the heart of the Democrats’ case against the former president.  

In this image from video, the vote total on the question of the constitutionality of the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is displayed in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 9, 2021.

Tuesday’s vote to proceed was expected. 

Last month, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a staunch Trump supporter, attempted to block the trial on the same constitutional grounds, but five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting 55-45 to proceed with the trial.  

In the new vote Tuesday, another Republican, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, also voted to go ahead with the trial. 

Senate vote 

However, it will take a two-thirds majority for conviction, meaning at least 11 more Republican senators would have to reverse their votes for the prosecution to prevail. The 100-seat Senate is currently evenly divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.   

Paul says there is a “zero chance of conviction.” If Trump is convicted, the Senate, on a simple majority vote, could bar him from ever holding federal office again.  

In 1876, the Senate conducted an impeachment trial of a Cabinet secretary during the Grant administration who resigned moments before he was impeached. Trump was impeached by the House while still in office.  

The protest on January 6 turned into mayhem, as about 800 Trump supporters rampaged past authorities into the Capitol, smashed doors and windows, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police. Five people were killed, including a Capitol Police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide, and a rioter shot by an officer.   

FILE – Pro-Trump protesters storm the U.S. Capitol to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by Congress, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

The 100 senators deciding the impeachment case against the single-term president are in a unique position: Many of them were witnesses themselves to the chaos as they fled the Senate chamber.  

Trump, the only U.S. president to be twice impeached, was acquitted a year ago when he was accused of soliciting the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of last November’s election.  

A week after the storming of the Capitol, the House voted 232-197, with 10 Republicans joining all 222 Democrats, to accuse Trump of “incitement of insurrection.” Then, on January 20, Biden was inaugurated and Trump, no longer in power, flew for the last time on Air Force One to his Atlantic coastline mansion in Florida, where he has stayed since.  

Trump has declined a request from Democrats to testify in his defense at his impeachment trial and is not expected to attend. The trial could last a week or longer.   

The nine Democratic House impeachment managers bringing the case against Trump – several of them former prosecutors – say that Trump, by urging his supporters to contest his election defeat at the Capitol, was “singularly responsible” for the riot that ensued.   

Trump urged supporters to come to Washington on January 6, saying it would be “wild.” At a rally near the White House shortly before his supporters walked 16 blocks to the Capitol, Trump continued his weekslong barrage of unfounded claims that election fraud had cost him another four-year term.   

Speaking for more than an hour, Trump told his supporters “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” by marching to the Capitol.   

FILE – Then-President Donald Trump speaks a rally contesting the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by Congress, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

But he also exhorted them, saying, “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”   

“And we fight,” he said. “We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”   

Ahead of the trial, the House impeachment managers said in a legal brief, “President Trump’s responsibility for the events of January 6 is unmistakable” and that the former president’s “conduct must be declared unacceptable in the clearest and most unequivocal terms,” even though he is no longer in office.   

Assuming the Senate votes to go ahead with the trial after debating its constitutionality, House managers will begin to present their case on Wednesday, likely showing some of the hours of videos recording the mayhem, much as they did Tuesday.   

The president’s lawyers will then respond with his defense. According to an agreement announced Monday by congressional leaders, each side will have 16 hours over two days to present their arguments.  

Later in the week, the Senate will have an opportunity to debate whether to call witnesses. The House managers could call some of the rioters to testify they were responding to Trump’s call for them to confront lawmakers certifying Biden’s victory.    

Trump’s lawyers have mounted a vigorous defense and contend that the former president bears no responsibility for what occurred last month.   

In a brief filed Monday, they said the case against him amounts to “political theater” brought by anti-Trump Democrats. Trump’s lawyers suggested that he was simply exercising his constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech when he disputed the election results and argued that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to engage in a peaceful protest.   

“Instead, this was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people,” the lawyers wrote.  

“Instead of acting to heal the nation, or at the very least focusing on prosecuting the lawbreakers who stormed the Capitol, the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the moment for their own political gain,” they wrote. 

In response, the House Democrats prosecuting Trump said, “We live in a nation governed by the rule of law, not mob violence incited by presidents who cannot accept their own electoral defeat.”   

“The evidence of President Trump’s conduct is overwhelming,” the managers wrote. “He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions. And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing. As charged in the Article of Impeachment, President Trump violated his Oath of Office and betrayed the American people.” 

WASHINGTON – Arguments are under way in Washington in the historic second impeachment trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump, with lawmakers set to decide whether it is legal under the Constitution to try him after he has already left office.

Nine Democratic lawmakers from the House of Representatives, acting as prosecutors against the former U.S. leader, are arguing at Trump’s trial before the 100-member Senate that he should be held accountable for inciting the storming of the Capitol on January 6. They say he urged hundreds of supporters to confront lawmakers as they were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated him in last November’s election.

Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland told the Senate that if Trump is not held accountable, it “would create a brand-new January exception” where future presidents would not face consequences for any wrongdoing during their final month in office through impeachment and trial in the Senate.

The Democrats showed the Senate a video of the chaos that unfolded in the Capitol building, with rampaging protesters storming past authorities and lawmakers scrambling to avoid the violence.  

Trump’s lawyers are expected to respond that the trial is unconstitutional because the Constitution says impeachment is a tool to remove officials from office if they are found guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” That is impossible in Trump’s case, they contend, because Trump’s four-year term ended when Biden was inaugurated on January 20.  

The Senate, however, conducted an 1876 impeachment trial of a Cabinet secretary who resigned moments before he was impeached. Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives while still in office.

Up to four hours of arguments are scheduled on the constitutional issue, but Trump’s legal effort to end the trial before it starts in earnest is likely to fail.

FILE – Supporters of then-President Donald Trump riot in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a staunch Trump supporter, attempted last month to block the trial on the same grounds, but five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting 55-45 to proceed with the trial.  

However it requires a two-thirds majority for conviction, meaning at least 12 of those Republican senators would have to reverse their votes for the prosecution to prevail. The 10-seat Senate is currently evenly divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.

Paul says there is a “zero chance of conviction.” If Trump is convicted, the Senate, on a simple majority vote, could bar him from ever holding federal office again.  

The protest January 6 turned into mayhem, as about 800 Trump supporters rampaged past authorities into the Capitol, smashed doors and windows, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police. Five people were killed, including a Capitol Police officer and a rioter shot by an officer.

FILE – Pro-Trump protesters storm the U.S. Capitol to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by Congress, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

The 100 senators deciding the impeachment case against the single-term president are in a unique position: Many of them were witnesses themselves to the chaos as they fled the Senate chamber.

Trump, the only U.S. president to be twice impeached, was acquitted a year ago when he was accused of soliciting the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of last November’s election.

A week after the storming of the Capitol, the House voted 232-197, with 10 Republicans joining all 222 Democrats, to accuse Trump of “incitement of insurrection.” Then, on January 20, Biden was inaugurated as the country’s 46th president and Trump, no longer in power, flew for the last time on Air Force One to his Atlantic coastline mansion in Florida, where he has stayed since.

Trump has declined a request from Democrats to testify in his defense at his impeachment trial and is not expected to attend. The trial could last a week or longer.  

The nine Democratic House impeachment managers bringing the case against Trump – several of them former prosecutors – say that Trump, by urging his supporters to contest his election defeat at the Capitol, was “singularly responsible” for the riot that ensued.  

Trump urged supporters to come to Washington on January 6, saying it would be “wild.” At a rally near the White House shortly before his supporters walked 16 blocks to the Capitol, Trump continued his weeks-long barrage of unfounded claims that election fraud had cost him another four-year term.  

At one time in speaking for more than an hour, Trump told his supporters “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” by marching to the Capitol.

FILE – Then-President Donald Trump speaks a rally contesting the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by Congress, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

But he also exhorted them, saying, “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”  

“And we fight,” he said. “We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”  

Ahead of the trial, the House impeachment managers said in a legal brief, “President Trump’s responsibility for the events of January 6 is unmistakable” and that the former president’s “conduct must be declared unacceptable in the clearest and most unequivocal terms,” even though he is no longer in office.  

Assuming the Senate votes to go ahead with the trial after debating its constitutionality, House managers will begin to present their case on Wednesday, likely showing some of the hours of videos recording the mayhem.  

The president’s lawyers will then respond with his defense. According to an agreement announced Monday by congressional leaders, each side will have 16 hours over two days to present its arguments.

Later in the week, the Senate will have an opportunity to debate whether to call witnesses. The House managers could call some of the rioters to testify they were responding to Trump’s call for them on to confront lawmakers certifying Biden’s victory.   

Trump’s lawyers have mounted a vigorous defense and contend that the former president bears no responsibility for what occurred last month.  

In a brief filed Monday, they said the case against him amounts to “political theater” brought by anti-Trump Democrats. Trump’s lawyers suggested that he was simply exercising his constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech when he disputed the election results and argued that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to engage in a peaceful protest.  

“Instead, this was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people,” the lawyers wrote.

“Instead of acting to heal the nation, or at the very least focusing on prosecuting the lawbreakers who stormed the Capitol, the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the moment for their own political gain.”  

In response, the House Democrats prosecuting Trump said, “We live in a nation governed by the rule of law, not mob violence incited by presidents who cannot accept their own electoral defeat.”  

“The evidence of President Trump’s conduct is overwhelming,” the managers wrote. “He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions. And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing. As charged in the Article of Impeachment, President Trump violated his Oath of Office and betrayed the American people.”

America’s latest first lady is breaking with tradition as the first presidential spouse to keep her job while in the White House.  

Jill Biden, who has a doctorate in education, is an English professor at a community college near Washington.  

“I think in particular, the fact that she is in a profession that is seen as a helping profession, that is seen as not innately a controversial profession, that she will be more accepted by the American people in continuing her professional life,” says Katherine Jellison, a professor of history at Ohio University. “Also, she’s in a traditionally female profession — teaching.”  

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The role of first lady is not a job that is applied for, and there is no salary. While there aren’t any specific job requirements, Americans often expect first ladies to be warm, motherly figures.   

“Americans see presidents as father figures and family members. That makes first ladies maternal figures and kind of the mothers of our country,” says presidential historian Barbara Perry. “Or if they’re younger, like a Jacqueline Kennedy who was only 31 when she became first lady… then they see her as an older sister or a glamorous aunt.”  

Setting a standard  

Eleanor Roosevelt was scorned by some for being an activist first lady who pushed for universal civil rights and social programs. 

“She was more liberal than her husband and constantly pushing on civil rights, generally, women’s rights, labor rights,” says Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “She was always pressing for the social programs that she wanted and was much reviled because of that.”  

While many criticized Roosevelt’s political activities, she nonetheless set a standard for future first spouses.     

“When we had a couple of lower-profile first ladies immediately following Mrs. Roosevelt, I think a lot of Americans said to themselves, ‘Well this isn’t right. We want someone who’s more in the public eye, someone who has at least a major project that they are advocating for,’” Jellison says.     

First lady’s role  

When Jacqueline Kennedy moved into the White House in 1961, she was dismayed to find it furnished with few historical artifacts. Strongly feeling the executive mansion should reflect the artistic history of the country, Kennedy spearheaded a restoration of the White House and had a hand in preserving the neighborhood around it.   

Jacqueline Kennedy poses during a tour of the White House East Room in Washington in 1962.

Ever since she embraced historic preservation in the 1960s, every first lady has adopted at least one public service project.   

Lady Bird Johnson was an environmentalist who pushed for the preservation of wildflowers and other native plants. Nancy Reagan encouraged children to “Just Say No” to drugs. Barbara Bush championed literacy for children and adults, while Michelle Obama promoted healthy eating by planting a White House vegetable garden. 

“Things that are related to women — children, health literacy, drugs, gardening, historical preservation — those are the things that Americans are comfortable with their first lady doing,” says Perry. “The American people have a limited role they want the first lady to play, and if she steps outside that role, they turn on her.”   

Hillary Clinton learned that firsthand in 1993 after President Bill Clinton appointed her to lead his task force on national health care reform. It was an unprecedented policy role for a first lady. But fierce public backlash, some of it personally directed at Clinton, herself, helped doom the plan, which never even got a floor vote in Congress.   

“We saw where that got her — much hatred, people turned on her, it didn’t pass,” Perry says. “And then, she had to go back to more soft-power approaches to being first lady.” 

Behind the scenes  

While first ladies are often seen as motherly symbols of American womanhood, history shows these women can have considerable behind-the-scenes influence.  

A portrait of former first ladies: Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush (standing). Seated, left to right: Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Rosalynn Carter and Betty Ford, Nov. 4, 1991 in Simi Valley, California.

“Melania Trump had a top national security adviser fired in her husband’s administration because she didn’t like the way her staff was treated on a foreign trip by this adviser. So, they can also determine who’s around the president,” says presidential historian Kate Andersen Brower, author of “First Women.” “Nancy Reagan was really the human resources department for her husband. She decided who would be in and who was out.” 

And the same year she tried to push health care reform through Congress, Clinton made a quiet suggestion to her husband.  

“She’s one of the reasons why Ruth Bader Ginsburg was on the Supreme Court,” Andersen Brower says. “She told her husband that she thought she would make an excellent Supreme Court justice.”    

Former President Bill Clinton, left, Hillary Clinton, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Oct. 30, 2019, in Washington.

It’s an example of soft power and how private conversations between spouses can have a huge impact on the country.     

“These women are really strong. I think that they’re constantly underestimated, and I think that’s partially because women in our society are often underestimated,” says Andersen Brower. “I hope and I think that we are moving in the right direction having Jill Biden as a working woman who can be both things at the same time. She can be a wife, a supporting actor, but also a strong woman.”     

While Biden is redefining her current role, the biggest shake-up could come once a woman is elected president, Jellison says, and a man takes up the role of first spouse.    

WASHINGTON – Arguments are under way in Washington in the historic second impeachment trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump, with lawmakers set to decide whether it is legal under the Constitution to try him after he has already left office.

Nine Democratic lawmakers from the House of Representatives, acting as prosecutors against the former U.S. leader, are arguing at Trump’s trial before the 100-member Senate that he should be held accountable for inciting the storming of the Capitol on January 6. They say he urged hundreds of supporters to confront lawmakers as they were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated him in last November’s election.

Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland told the Senate that if Trump is not held accountable, it “would create a brand-new January exception” where future presidents would not face consequences for any wrongdoing during their final month in office through impeachment and trial in the Senate.

WATCH TRIAL LIVE

The Democrats showed the Senate a video of the chaos that unfolded in the Capitol building, with rampaging protesters storming past authorities and lawmakers scrambling to avoid the violence.  

Trump’s lawyers are expected to respond that the trial is unconstitutional because the Constitution says impeachment is a tool to remove officials from office if they are found guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” That is impossible in Trump’s case, they contend, because Trump’s four-year term ended when Biden was inaugurated on January 20.  

The Senate, however, conducted an 1876 impeachment trial of a Cabinet secretary who resigned moments before he was impeached. Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives while still in office.

Up to four hours of arguments are scheduled on the constitutional issue, but Trump’s legal effort to end the trial before it starts in earnest is likely to fail.

FILE – Supporters of then-President Donald Trump riot in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a staunch Trump supporter, attempted last month to block the trial on the same grounds, but five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting 55-45 to proceed with the trial.  

However it requires a two-thirds majority for conviction, meaning at least 12 of those Republican senators would have to reverse their votes for the prosecution to prevail. The 10-seat Senate is currently evenly divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.

Paul says there is a “zero chance of conviction.” If Trump is convicted, the Senate, on a simple majority vote, could bar him from ever holding federal office again.  

The protest January 6 turned into mayhem, as about 800 Trump supporters rampaged past authorities into the Capitol, smashed doors and windows, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police. Five people were killed, including a Capitol Police officer and a rioter shot by an officer.

FILE – Pro-Trump protesters storm the U.S. Capitol to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by Congress, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

The 100 senators deciding the impeachment case against the single-term president are in a unique position: Many of them were witnesses themselves to the chaos as they fled the Senate chamber.

Trump, the only U.S. president to be twice impeached, was acquitted a year ago when he was accused of soliciting the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of last November’s election.

A week after the storming of the Capitol, the House voted 232-197, with 10 Republicans joining all 222 Democrats, to accuse Trump of “incitement of insurrection.” Then, on January 20, Biden was inaugurated as the country’s 46th president and Trump, no longer in power, flew for the last time on Air Force One to his Atlantic coastline mansion in Florida, where he has stayed since.

Trump has declined a request from Democrats to testify in his defense at his impeachment trial and is not expected to attend. The trial could last a week or longer.  

The nine Democratic House impeachment managers bringing the case against Trump – several of them former prosecutors – say that Trump, by urging his supporters to contest his election defeat at the Capitol, was “singularly responsible” for the riot that ensued.  

Trump urged supporters to come to Washington on January 6, saying it would be “wild.” At a rally near the White House shortly before his supporters walked 16 blocks to the Capitol, Trump continued his weeks-long barrage of unfounded claims that election fraud had cost him another four-year term.  

At one time in speaking for more than an hour, Trump told his supporters “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” by marching to the Capitol.

FILE – Then-President Donald Trump speaks a rally contesting the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by Congress, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

But he also exhorted them, saying, “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”  

“And we fight,” he said. “We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”  

Ahead of the trial, the House impeachment managers said in a legal brief, “President Trump’s responsibility for the events of January 6 is unmistakable” and that the former president’s “conduct must be declared unacceptable in the clearest and most unequivocal terms,” even though he is no longer in office.  

Assuming the Senate votes to go ahead with the trial after debating its constitutionality, House managers will begin to present their case on Wednesday, likely showing some of the hours of videos recording the mayhem.  

The president’s lawyers will then respond with his defense. According to an agreement announced Monday by congressional leaders, each side will have 16 hours over two days to present its arguments.

Later in the week, the Senate will have an opportunity to debate whether to call witnesses. The House managers could call some of the rioters to testify they were responding to Trump’s call for them on to confront lawmakers certifying Biden’s victory.   

Trump’s lawyers have mounted a vigorous defense and contend that the former president bears no responsibility for what occurred last month.  

In a brief filed Monday, they said the case against him amounts to “political theater” brought by anti-Trump Democrats. Trump’s lawyers suggested that he was simply exercising his constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech when he disputed the election results and argued that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to engage in a peaceful protest.  

“Instead, this was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people,” the lawyers wrote.

“Instead of acting to heal the nation, or at the very least focusing on prosecuting the lawbreakers who stormed the Capitol, the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the moment for their own political gain.”  

In response, the House Democrats prosecuting Trump said, “We live in a nation governed by the rule of law, not mob violence incited by presidents who cannot accept their own electoral defeat.”  

“The evidence of President Trump’s conduct is overwhelming,” the managers wrote. “He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions. And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing. As charged in the Article of Impeachment, President Trump violated his Oath of Office and betrayed the American people.”

WASHINGTON – The historic second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump started Tuesday in the U.S. Senate, with Trump accused of inciting insurrection a month ago by urging his supporters to confront lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol as they were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

WATCH TRIAL LIVE

The protest turned into mayhem, as about 800 supporters of Trump stormed past authorities into the Capitol, smashed doors and windows, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police. Five people were left dead, including a Capitol Police officer whose death is under investigation as a homicide and a rioter shot by a police officer.

The 100 senators – split evenly between Republican and Democratic caucuses — hearing the impeachment case against the single-term president are in a unique position: many of them were witnesses themselves to the chaos of January 6 as they fled the Senate chamber for their own safety.  

With a two-thirds vote needed for conviction, 17 Republicans would have to turn against Trump, their Republican colleague, for him to be convicted, assuming all 50 Democrats vote to convict. As such, Trump almost certainly will be acquitted, just as he was a year ago when he was accused of soliciting the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of last November’s election.

FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump looks on at the end of his speech during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

Whatever the outcome, however, Trump stands alone in more than two centuries of U.S. history as the only president to be impeached twice.

A week after the storming of the Capitol, the House of Representatives voted 232-197, with 10 Republicans joining all 222 Democrats, to accuse Trump of “incitement of insurrection.” Then, on January 20, Biden was inaugurated as the country’s 46th president and Trump, no longer in power, flew for the last time on Air Force One to his Atlantic coastline mansion in Florida, where he has stayed since.

Trump has declined a request from Democrats to testify in his defense at his impeachment trial and is not expected to attend it. The trial could last a week or longer.

The nine Democratic House impeachment managers bringing the case against Trump — several of them former prosecutors — claim that Trump, by urging his supporters to contest his election defeat at the Capitol, was “singularly responsible” for the riot that ensued.

Trump urged supporters to come to Washington on January 6, saying it would be “wild.” At a rally near the White House shortly before his supporters walked 16 blocks to the Capitol, Trump continued his weeks-long barrage of unfounded claims that election fraud had cost him another four-year term.

At one time in speaking for more than an hour, Trump told his supporters “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” by marching to the Capitol.

But he also exhorted them, saying, “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”

“And we fight,” he said. “We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Ahead of the trial, the House impeachment managers said in a legal brief, “President Trump’s responsibility for the events of January 6 is unmistakable” and that the former president’s “conduct must be declared unacceptable in the clearest and most unequivocal terms,” even though he is no longer in office.

The U.S. Constitution allows for the removal of officials found guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Trump’s two experienced trial lawyers he hired — David Schoen and Bruce Castor — have argued that since Trump is no longer president, and therefore could not be removed from office, his impeachment trial is unconstitutional.

The Senate, however, has conducted impeachment trials of former officials, not allowing them to avoid a trial for possible wrongdoing by resigning, as happened in an 1876 case, or in Trump’s case, by leaving office as his term ended. Moreover, the House impeachment lawyers argue that Trump incited the insurrection and was impeached by the House while he was still in office.

FILE – In this image from video, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., makes a motion that the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is unconstitutional in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a staunch Trump supporter, attempted to block the trial on such constitutional grounds, but five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting 55-45 to proceed with the trial. But the vote also signaled Trump’s seeming Republican support for acquittal remains significant, more than enough to block his conviction.

Paul says there is a “zero chance of conviction.” If Trump were to be convicted, the Senate, on a simple majority vote, could bar him from ever holding office again.

On Tuesday, as the trial starts in earnest, lawyers for Trump and the House managers prosecuting him again are expected to debate the constitutionality of holding the trial. But assuming the Senate votes to go ahead with it, House managers would begin to present their case on Wednesday, likely showing some of the clips of hours of videos of the mayhem.

FILE – In this Jan. 6, 2021, photo, supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington.

Then the president’s lawyers would respond with his defense.  According to an agreement announced Monday by congressional leaders, each side will have 16 hours over two days to make their arguments. 

Trump’s lawyers have mounted a vigorous defense and contend that the former president bears no responsibility for what occurred January 6.

In a brief filed Monday, they contended that the case against him amounts to “political theater” brought by anti-Trump Democrats. Trump’s lawyers suggested that he was simply exercising his constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech when he disputed the election results and argued that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to engage in a peaceful protest.

“Instead, this was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people,” the lawyers wrote. “Instead of acting to heal the nation, or at the very least focusing on prosecuting the lawbreakers who stormed the Capitol, the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the moment for their own political gain.”

In response, the House Democrats prosecuting Trump said, “We live in a nation governed by the rule of law, not mob violence incited by presidents who cannot accept their own electoral defeat.”

“The evidence of President Trump’s conduct is overwhelming,” the managers wrote. “He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions. And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing. As charged in the Article of Impeachment, President Trump violated his Oath of Office and betrayed the American people.”