Trump’s second impeachment trial will begin Feb. 8

WASHINGTON — House Democrats will send the article of impeachment against former President Donald J. Trump to the Senate on Monday and the trial will start the week of Feb. 8, to allow time for the House and the former president to prepare, under a framework announced Friday.

The timeline, announced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, calls for the House to formally walk over the article to the Senate on Monday and for senators to be sworn in on Tuesday for their impeachment duties.

From there, the House and Trump’s legal team will have two weeks to write briefs while the Senate does other business, including Cabinet confirmations for the new Biden administration.

The trial will begin week of Feb. 8, one week earlier than a proposal floated Thursday by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Trump was impeached by the House for inciting the Jan. 6 mob that attacked the Capitol, making him the only president to be impeached twice and the first to stand trial after leaving office. Republicans are already laying the groundwork to try to delegitimize the process.

“The Senate will conduct a trial of the impeachment of Donald Trump,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said earlier in the day. “It will be a full trial. It will be a fair trial.”

Several questions remain about how the trial would proceed. It is not yet known whether Chief Justice John Roberts would preside over the trial as he did during the last impeachment trial of Trump. The Constitution appoints the chief justice to oversee presidential impeachments, but refers to a “sitting” president.