Schumer vows to reveal ‘new evidence’ of Trump’s guilt in impeachment trial

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that impeachment managers will reveal “powerful new evidence” of former President Donald Trump’s guilt at his Senate trial for inciting the Capitol storming.

Just hours before the trial was set to begin, the New York Democrat said Tuesday that the nation will hear things it didn’t previously know about Trump’s responsibility in the violent attempt to overturn the election results.

“The evidence will be powerful. The evidence, some of it, will be new,” Schumer said. “And I urge all of my colleagues to pay careful attention to the evidence.”

Schumer did not reveal what the previously unrevealed evidence is.

Much of the impeachment case is based on the public record showing that Trump urged his supporters to prevent lawmakers from confirming President Biden’s victory, along with his refusal to act to defend the Capitol as the riot raged on Jan. 6.

Schumer said he hopes Republican senators in particular, including some strong Trump supporters, will approach the case with an open mind when they hear how egregious his actions were.

“The Senate has a solemn responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable for the most serious charges ever, ever levied against a president,” Schumer said.

Trump’s impeachment trial starts Tuesday afternoon with a debate on the constitutionality of impeaching a president who has already left office.

It will then continue with several days of arguments by House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team.

Schumer dismissed the idea that America should move on from the divisive Trump era by forgoing an accounting of what happened that day and Trump’s responsibility for it.

“Sweeping it under the rug will not bring unity, it will keep the sore open, and the wounds open,” he said. “You need truth and accountability.”