Tag: Trump second impeachment

Trump legal switch hints at larger problems

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Former President Trump abruptly changed his legal team over the weekend, underscoring his difficulties in putting together a strong defense just a week before his impeachment trial is to begin.

The president announced late Sunday that his legal defense will be led by attorneys David Schoen and Bruce Castor, two figures involved in controversial cases in the past.

The two replace South Carolina attorney Butch Bowers, who had been connected to Trump with the help of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) but reportedly differed with the ex-president over strategy for the trial. Continue reading.

First on CNN: Trump’s impeachment defense team leaves less than two weeks before trial

Former President Donald Trump’s five impeachment defense attorneys have left a little more than a week before his trial is set to begin, according to people familiar with the case, amid a disagreement over his legal strategy. 

It was a dramatic development in the second impeachment trial for Trump, who has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case. And now, with legal briefs due next week and a trial set to begin only days later, Trump is clinging to his election fraud charade and suddenly finds himself without legal representation.

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team. As the lead attorney, Bowers assembled the team. Continue reading.

‘A world of denial’: Conservative writer blasts GOP voters for being ‘delusional’

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Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin has made no secret of the fact that on January 20, she was delighted to see President Joe Biden sworn into office and former President Donald Trump exit the White House. Rubin was hoping — not expecting, but hoping — that the GOP would abandon Trumpism after Trump was voted out of office. Instead, Rubin laments in a column published this week, Republicans are doubling down on it. And she argues that a party that has been overtaken by dangerous extremists and insurrectionists must be kept away “from the levers of power.”

Trump is facing a second impeachment trial following the violent insurrection on January 6, when a violent mob of pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in the hope of preventing Congress from certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 presidential election. Yet many Republicans, Rubin notes, are still unwavering Trump supporters.

“The vast majority of Republicans prefer to live in a world of denial, even at the price of refusing to hold the instigator of a domestic terrorist attack responsible,” Rubin laments. “The party’s base, at this point, is as delusional as Republican ‘leaders’ who refuse to convict Trump for instigating the assault and who treat conspiracy-monger Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) as a member in good standing.” Continue reading.

Behind Trump’s Words, A Criminal State Of Mind

For the senators who will sit in judgment of Donald Trump’s second impeachment a crucial question will be his state of mind on his day of rage, January 6, and his weeks of rage leading up to the attack on the Capitol. 

Trump’s defense cherry-picks a few of his words on that day, pointing out that he used the word “peaceful” while speaking to the White House rally that preceded the insurrection. They ignore that he told them to “fight.” Immediately after a Proud Boys rally in Washington that ended with knifings and beatings in the streets, he urged his rabble to come to Washington for a “wild” demonstration to prevent the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.

Proving his culpability, however, will depend on more than just his words before the insurrection. Continue reading.

Trump’s impeachment is unlikely to result in a conviction. But it may increase his chances of being criminally prosecuted

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If a U.S. Senate vote held this week is any indication, it’s most unlikely that former President Donald Trump will be convicted in his second impeachment trial: all but five Senate Republicans voted that the trial is unconstitutional. However, Law & Crime reporter Jerry Lambe stresses, in an article published after that vote, that although the Senate will probably acquit Trump a second time, the trial could increase Trump’s chances of facing a criminal prosecution.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky proposed a vote on the constitutionality of Trump’s second impeachment trial, arguing that the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer president. The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 55-45 that the trial is constitutional — not unconstitutional — but most of the senators who voted in favor of the trial going forward were Democrats. The only GOP senators who disagreed with Paul’s resolution were Utah’s Mitt Romney, Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey and Nebraska’s Ben Sasse.

Following the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building, the U.S. House of Representatives indicted Trump on one article of impeachment: incitement to insurrection. Paul knew that his resolution declaring the trial unconstitutional wouldn’t pass, but he wanted to force other senators to go on the record with where they stand — and most Senate Republicans obviously don’t believe the trial should even take place. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other Republicans have been arguing that because Trump is no longer president, a Senate trial would be “pointless.” Continue reading.

Ghosts of our unsettled past

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The House managers walked quietly through Statuary Hall to present the single article of impeachment against former president Donald Trump to the Senate. Americans have now become deeply familiar with this civics lesson, one that features members of the House striding slowly through the hall as though they are part of a funeral procession. What once seemed so rare and arcane has now become a sad hum in the background — the contrails of an administration that the country may take a generation to shake.

The former president was impeached for a second time in the House of Representatives, most recently for “engaging in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States.” In other words, he egged on the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol early this month. And so on Monday evening, with the Capitol blessedly quiet and calm, one could hear the footfalls of the legislators on the stone floor as they walked two by two, solemnly focused on their task. A few camera shutters clicked, but mostly there was an eerie silence in a space that has been the location of so much tumult, so many emotions in such a short span of time.

The impeachment managers moved though a room filled with the ghosts of our distant past and the fresh memories of our troubled present. Continue reading.

Just five GOP senators vote Trump impeachment trial is constitutional

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The Senate sent a strong signal Tuesday that there are not nearly enough votes to convict President Trump in an impeachment trial when only five GOP senators rejected an effort by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to declare the looming trial unconstitutional. 

The Senate voted 55-45 to set aside Paul’s motion, with all but five GOP senators siding with Paul. GOP Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Pat Toomey (Pa.) voted with Democrats to table Paul’s point of order.

The vote is the clearest sign yet that Trump is heading toward a second acquittal and offers an early insight into which Republicans are lining up behind an argument that his second impeachment trial isn’t constitutional. Continue reading.

‘The trial is stupid’: Marco Rubio battles Chris Wallace over Trump’s insurrection impeachment

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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Sunday said that he will attempt to end former President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial because it is “stupid.”

Rubio make the remarks during an interview with Fox News host Chris Wallace.

“First of all, I think the trial is stupid,” Rubio said dismissively. “We already have a flaming fire in this country and it’s like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire.” Continue reading.

House formally sends impeachment to Senate, putting Trump on trial for Capitol riot

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House Democrats on Monday sent to the Senate their single impeachment article against former President Trump, officially putting him on trial for his role in the deadly mob attack on the Capitol earlier in the month.

The ceremonial delivery — a somber cross-Capitol march performed by the nine Democratic House members who will prosecute the case — was a legal formality. The House had impeached Trump 12 days ago, and Senate leaders have agreed to postpone the start of the public trial until the week of Feb. 8.

The timeline itself has been strategic, allowing the newly seated President Biden some breathing room to install several top Cabinet officials and advance the debate over another massive package of coronavirus relief before the Senate becomes consumed by the highly contentious impeachment trial.  Continue reading.

McConnell privately says he wants Trump gone as Republicans quietly lobby him to convict

WASHINGTON — As the House prepares to send an article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, CNN has learned that dozens of influential Republicans around Washington — including former top Trump administration officials — have been quietly lobbying GOP members of Congress to impeach and convict Donald Trump. The effort is not coordinated but reflects a wider battle inside the GOP between those loyal to Trump and those who want to sever ties and ensure he can never run for President again.

The lobbying started in the House after the January 6 attack on the Capitol and in the days leading up to impeachment. But it’s now more focused on Sen. Mitch McConnell, the powerful minority leader who has signaled he may support convicting Trump.

“Mitch said to me he wants Trump gone,” one Republican member of Congress told CNN. “It is in his political interest to have him gone. It is in the GOP interest to have him gone. The question is, do we get there?” Continue reading.