The second impeachment of Former President Donald J. Trump ended on February 13th, 2021 after the Senate voted to acquit Trump on charges relating to the January 6th insurrection. The impeachment process resulted in 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives voting to impeach. 7 Republicans in the Senate voted to convict, falling short of the 17 Republican Senators needed to join the Democrats on a conviction.
Lasting four days, the trial commenced on Feb. 9 with the two sides arguing for and against the Senate’s jurisdiction to convict a former official. The House Impeachment Managers, who included Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), David Ciciline (D-RI), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA), argued that the Senate had jurisdiction on convicting a former official based on precedent and the language in the Constitution. They said that the inclusion of the power to bar a federal official from holding further office gives the Senate power to go through the initial process of removal if the goal is to also prevent that official from holding future office. They also argued that given the bureaucratic system, not allowing the Senate to punish officials for actions done while in office gives any federal official a “January exception” because there would not be enough time to bring charges against them until they leave office.
Pres. Trump’s counsel included lawyers Bruce Castor, Michael Van Der Veen, and David Schoen. Their argument against the Senate’s jurisdiction over the trial argued that the impeachment was politically motivated by the Democrats and that Pres. Trump had already been punished for his actions by losing the November 5 election (which occurred prior to the events at the Capitol). Prior to these votes, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), forced a procedural vote on Jan. 26 over the issue, which ruled in favor of the Senate’s jurisdiction on a 55-45 vote. On Feb. 13, a vote on the same issue passed on a 56-44 vote, which added the vote of Republican Bill Cassidy (LA) to his fellow Republican Senators Pat Toomey (PA), Susan Collins (ME), Ben Sasse (NE), Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Mitt Romney (UT).
On February 10th and 11th, the House Impeachment managers presented their case against the former president. They used most of their allotted 16 hours to bring evidence, which included statements made by Pres. Trump about the election and his “stop the steal” rhetoric, as well as videos from the crowd on Jan. 6 both during his speech and the violence afterward. The Managers pointed to the fact that most people involved in the insurrection went to the Capitol building immediately after Trump’s speech on the Ellipse that day. The Managers lingered on the viral videos of people in the Capitol Rotunda shouting “hang Mike Pence” and waving “TRUMP 2020” flags. They also attempted to inform the timeline of President Trump’s involvement by introducing descriptions of phone calls between President Trump, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), and Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). In these calls, the President called to ask how the Senate’s objection to the election results was going while the Senate was being evacuated because of the riot. Senator Mike Lee asked for the description of the phone call to be stricken from the Senate’s record on the grounds the description of the call was inaccurate; however, based on his own statements and Sen. Tuberville’s statements, the House Managers reported correctly.
In contrast, the President’s Counsel used less than three hours in their defense. They called the attempt to hold the President accountable for his actions “an unconstitutional act of political vengeance”. The counsel also made the case that the President’s words at his speech on Jan. 6 amounted to no more than political rhetoric and were not the direct cause of the insurrection. The fourth day of proceedings ended with a question and answer session with Senators getting the chance to ask questions of the House Managers and Presidential Counsel. Each question was allotted 5 minutes, with the time being split between the Managers and Counsel if the question was addressed to both sides.
The night of Feb. 12, Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA.) recounted a conversation she had with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) about a separate phone call he had with President Trump on Jan. 6. McCarthy told Pres Trump to publicly call off the riot, claiming that Trumps’ supporters were in the Capitol building, and the President reportedly said “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” This revelation prompted the House Managers to bring a resolution to the Senate floor to allow the subpoena of witnesses in the trial. The resolution to include witnesses passed by a 55-45 vote, however, after some negotiation, the Managers simply entered the Herrera Beutler statement into evidence without dispute from the President’s Counsel. After a few hours of confusion, the Senate continued with closing statements, foregoing witnesses.
The outcome of the acquittal— 57-43 vote in favor of conviction— shocked some. Seven Republican Senators voted to convict the former President. The outcome of the trial, while not coming close to the threshold of 67 votes for conviction, was seen as a victory for the House Managers and illustrative of the splits in the Republican party over Former President Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/02/12/us/impeachment-trial