The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Democrats: Impeachment trial a legal obligation
WASHINGTON — Democrats pushing ahead with an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump, including both U.S. senators from Connecticut, say they’re fulfilling their constitutional obligation regardless of the likely verdict.
“Whatever the verdict, the public will see a tableau of lawbreaking and incitement of domestic terrorism and violence that sought to overthrow the electoral process and potentially kill public officials and caused not only injuries, but also deaths,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in an interview Monday. “This public airing will have a powerful impact on public awareness and their views of Donald Trump and domestic terrorism that will be valuable and profoundly important.”
Backers of Trump maintain, with dwindling support from the legal community, that the trial should not happen at all. Trump’s legal team plans to argue that the impeachment of a past president is improper and Trump’s actions are protected by free speech laws.
“This process will provide us with an opportunity to explain to senators why it is absurd and unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial against a private citizen,” Trump’s legal team said Monday.
Whichever side is right, on Tuesday, the 100-member U.S. Senate will begin the first ever impeachment trial for a president who has left office and it’s likely to take about a week. Early on, the Senate will decide on that question of whether the trial is proper — with a likely yes vote, as Democrats control the chamber with a tie-breaking vote of the vice president, and a simple majority is all that’s needed on that question.
The trial appears unlikely to result in a conviction, as that would require a twothirds vote, or 17 Republicans voting to convict. Democrats hope the process will still hold Trump accountable through public discussion of his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Sen. Chris Murphy, DConn., said on Fox News Sunday the Senate has a constitutional obligation to hold the trial whether or not conviction is expected and regardless of the other legislation they want to work on.
Some opponents of holding the trial say the event will divert the Senate’s attention from needed legislation, while Democrats say they can do both.
The result: Almost everyone is looking to finish the trial quickly. A framework for the trial released by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., on Monday laid the groundwork for a weeklong trial.
“This impeachment trial in the United States Senate will allow for truth and accountability, which are essential to ensuring desperately needed unity and healing in our country following the despicable attack on our democracy on Jan. 6 that left five people dead,” Schumer said Monday.
‘Taking their eye off the ball’
Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representative on Jan. 13 for inciting an insurrection against the federal government. Ten Republicans voted with Democrats to make Trump the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice.
Lawmakers were outraged that after months of falsely insisting the 2020 election was stolen from him, Trump on Jan. 6 held a rally and urged supporters to march on the Capitol, where they subsequently fought with Capitol Police, breached the building, forced members of Congress into lock-down and caused injuries and deaths.
Previously, five Republicans joined Democrats on a vote over whether to move forward with the trial. The objections of 45 Republicans led observers to conclude a conviction is unlikely. If a conviction is reached, the chamber could subsequently vote to bar Trump from holding future office.
Public opinion shows a slight majority supported Trump’s impeachment — 53 percent, on average, said they supported Trump being removed from office before he left the White House on Jan. 20, according to Five Thirty Eight, which analyzed multiple polls. That’s more support than Trump’s impeachment received in 2019 when he was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for pressuring the president of Ukraine to investigate now-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Public support for a Senate conviction is now 50 percent.
Expect Democrats to remind Republicans about the events of Jan. 6 in future campaigns in 2022 and 2024 — especially if anyone with the last name Trump chooses to run.
“We will inevitably be seeing clips of this event for two and four years for sure,” said Justin Peck, assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University.
For Republicans, the trial will put all senators on the record about their views on Trump’s actions, a position they will have to defend in future elections. Republicans may argue with some success that Democrats always wanted to go after Trump since 2016 and now they’re taking this opportunity to land one more blow on him.
“It probably gives ammunition to Republicans that allows them to say Democrats have been itching to impeach Trump since the beginning and they’re overly focused on Trump,” said Charles Tien, professor of political science at the City University of New York. “They’re taking their eye off the ball of important business, whether that would be getting more of Biden’s cabinet confirmed, addressing the pandemic of course and other important issues that matter to the American people more than whether Trump is convicted, especially since he is no longer president.”
Murphy rebutted this argument on Fox News, noting that the House and Senate are drafting their coronavirus relief bill this week, preparing to pass it around the end of this month. His staff did not respond to an interview request.
The proceedings
According to the parameters for the trial agreed upon by Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., the House impeachment managers who will prosecute Trump and Trump’s defense team, each side will start making their case for and against conviction Wednesday. The prosecution and defense will each have 16 hours over two days for their presentations.
The Senate will vote on whether to call witnesses if they are requested by either side. This time Senate Democrats are not pressing strongly for witnesses, as they did in 2020, because they argue much of the key information about Trump’s actions — his speech, his tweets, the actions of his supporters — are already available in the public domain. Calling additional witnesses could draw out the trial. Trump has declined to testify.
“As a former federal prosecutor, rarely does a prosecutor claim to know every single fact about what may have happened in a crime. The requirement is to know enough to prove guilt,” said Blumenthal, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut from 1977 to 1981. “The proof here I think will be overwhelming and compelling.”
While they rushed to quickly impeach Trump, Democrats are also leading investigations into the events of Jan. 6, including the response of law enforcement and the funding of domestic terrorists, through various Congressional inquiries. Murphy has helped lead investigations into the work of Capitol Police.
Blumenthal will soon introduce legislation for a nonpartisan commission to conduct an in-depth investigation, styled after the Sept. 11 Commission, he said.