Senators are required to take a ‘special oath’ as impeachment triers — and some of them have ‘precommitted themselves to violating’ that obligation: legal experts

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee) have made it abundantly clear that if President Donald Trump is indicted on articles of impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives — which is likely — and those articles go to the U.S. Senate for consideration, they have no intention of seriously considering the evidence. And legal experts Benjamin Wittes and Quinta Jurecic, in a December 16 article for The Atlantic, emphasize that both of those high-ranking Republicans are failing to perform their constitutional duties as U.S. senators.

Wittes and Jurecic are both sought out for their legal expertise. Wittes is editor-in-chief of Lawfare, while Jurecic is Lawfare’s managing editor. Both are freelance contributors to The Atlantic, and Wittes is a frequent guest on MSNBC.

Citing Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 of the U.S. Constitution, Wittes and Jurecic assert that according to the Founding Fathers, “the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments” — and when the Senate is in session “for that purpose,” United States senators “shall be on oath or affirmation.”