Trump’s historic second trial opens

WASHINGTON (AP):

The Senate opened Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial Tuesday, the defeated former president charged by the House with inciting the deadly mob attack on the Capitol to overturn the election in what prosecutors call the “most grievous constitutional crime”.

Trump’s lawyers are insisting that he is not guilty of the sole charge of “incitement of insurrection”, his fiery words just a figure of speech as he encouraged a rally crowd to “fight like hell” for his presidency. But prosecutors say he “has no good defence” and they promise new evidence.

The Capitol siege on January 6 stunned the world as rioters stormed the building to try to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Five people died.

“Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye,” the acting sergeant at arms intoned to start the trial.

Trump is the first president to face impeachment charges after leaving office and the first to be twice impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours. He remains a challenge to the nation’s civic norms and traditions even in defeat.

Security remains extremely tight at the Capitol, a changed place after the attack, fenced off with razor wire and armed National Guard troops on patrol. The nine House managers walked across the shuttered building to prosecute the case before the Senate.

In an opening prayer, Senate Chaplain Barry Black asked God to “take control of this impeachment trial” and “have mercy on our beloved land”.

‘IMPARTIAL JUSTICE’

With senators gathered as the court of impeachment, sworn to deliver “impartial justice”, the trial is starting with debate and a vote over whether it’s constitutionally permissible to prosecute Trump after he is no longer in the White House. First, senators were voting on a resolution laying out the trial schedule for the days ahead.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said it was the senators’ “solemn constitutional duty” to conduct a fair trial of “the gravest charges ever brought against a president”.

Presiding is not the chief justice of the Supreme Court, as has been tradition for the nation’s few presidential impeachment trials, but the chamber’s senior-most member of the majority party, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

Acquittal is likely, but the trial will test the nation’s attitude towards his brand of presidential power, the Democrats’ resolve in pursuing him, and the loyalty of Trump’s Republican allies defending him.

“In trying to make sense of a second Trump trial, the public should keep in mind that Donald Trump was the first president ever to refuse to accept his defeat,” said Timothy Naftali, a clinical associate professor at New York University and an expert on impeachment.

“This trial is one way of having that difficult national conversation about the difference between dissent and insurrection,” Naftali said.

Trump’s defence team has embraced the question of constitutionality, which could resonate with Republicans eager to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behaviour. They argue in filings the trial is “patently ridiculous”.

But the House prosecutors will cite the nation’s founders to declare a president “must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last”. There is no “January exception” just before he leaves office, they will argue, according to aides granted anonymity to discuss the arguments ahead of the trial.