House impeachment managers Monday night delivered to the Senate an article impeaching former President Donald Trump of inciting an insurrection ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
It’s the second time in little more than a year that Democrats crossed the Capitol to deliver an impeachment charge against Trump, who left office on Wednesday and is now living at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Senate trial will begin on Feb. 8, but it won’t be like the proceedings against Trump last year, when he went on trial for two impeachment articles relating to his effort to convince the Ukrainian president to investigate now-President Biden.
This time, Chief Justice John Roberts won’t be presiding. Instead, Democrats have appointed Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and the Senate’s president pro tempore, to adjudicate the trial.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the rules of the trial remain under negotiation with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. The two sides have not decided on whether to allow witnesses, among other outstanding matters.
A new cast of House impeachment managers will prosecute the case. They include some of Trump’s staunchest political foes, including Reps. Eric Swalwell and Ted Lieu, both California Democrats, and David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat.
The managers are headed by Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat.
Raskin called Trump “a clear and present danger to the people” and said he is responsible for the mob attack that could have resulted in the death of every lawmaker in the House chamber that day.
Trump was acquitted of the two articles in 2020 and is likely to escape conviction this time around. It takes a supermajority of 67 senators to convict, and it is unlikely 17 Republicans will join Democrats to reach that threshold.
