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The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, began on February 9, 2021, and concluded with his acquittal on February 13. Donald Trump had been impeached for the second time by the House of Representatives on January 13, 2021. The House adopted one article of impeachment against Trump: incitement of insurrection. He is the only U.S. president and only federal official to be impeached twice. He was impeached by the House seven days prior to the expiration of his term and the inauguration of Joe Biden. Because he left office before the trial, this was the first impeachment trial of a former president. The article of impeachment addressed Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results (including his claims of election fraud and his efforts to pressure election officials in Georgia) and stated that Trump incited the attack on the Capitol in Washington, D.C., while Congress was convened to count the electoral votes and certify the victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.At the beginning of the trial, Senator Rand Paul forced a vote to dismiss the impeachment charge on the basis that it was unconstitutional to try a former president, arguing that impeachment only applies to current federal officers and that the punishment of removal from office was moot under the circumstances. Supporters of proceeding with the trial argued that the Constitution also permits disqualification from holding future office, which the House had requested in its article of impeachment. The motion was defeated in a 55–45 vote, with all Democrats, both independents, and five Republicans (Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania) voting against the motion. This was the first time that a former president had been tried, and only the second time the Senate tried someone who had already left office, after Secretary of War William W. Belknap in 1876. Jamie Raskin was the lead impeachment manager and the primary author – along with Representative David Cicilline and Representative Ted Lieu – of the impeachment article, which charged Trump with inciting an insurrection by sparking the Capitol attack. Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Madeleine Dean, and Stacey Plaskett also assisted in delivering the oral arguments for conviction.
Trump's defense was led by Michael van der Veen, a personal injury lawyer from Philadelphia, along with David Schoen and Bruce Castor. Van der Veen's style and substance during the trial drew ridicule and criticism from many, with gasps and laughter in the Senate when he stated that he would seek to depose at least 100 people at his Philadelphia office, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump had originally hired Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier to represent him, but they quit along with three other lawyers after "the former president wanted the lawyers representing him to focus on his allegations of mass election fraud" and his false claim that "the election was stolen from him."At the conclusion of the trial, the Senate voted 57–43 to convict Trump of inciting insurrection, falling 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority required by the Constitution, and Trump was therefore acquitted. Seven Republican senators joined all Democratic and independent senators in voting to convict Trump, the largest bipartisan vote for an impeachment conviction of a U.S. president or former U.S. president. After the vote on the acquittal, Mitch McConnell said it is no doubt that Trump is practically and morally responsible for inciting the events at the Capitol but he voted against conviction due to his interpretation of the United States Constitution.Officers of the trial
Presiding officer
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Chief Justice John Roberts had declined to preside over the trial because he believed that the chief justice only presided when the current president was tried.Patrick Leahy, president pro tempore of the Senate, presided over the trial, in place of Vice President Kamala Harris, the ex officio president of the Senate, who might have involved herself if any tie-breaking votes were needed.Prior to the selection of Leahy as presiding officer, there was debate as to who constitutionally should hold that role. Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 of the U.S. Constitution states that the Senate has the sole power to try impeachments and that "When the President of the United States is tried the Chief Justice shall preside." Various commentators questioned whether the chief justice must preside over the trial of former presidents. Political scientist Keith Whittington noted that the issue is "unsettled, completely without precedent, and unspecific in existing Senate rules and precedents." The University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt, an expert on impeachment, said he believed that if the impeachment trial began after Trump left office, Harris, as opposed to Roberts, would preside. Conversely, University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck said that "the question should be whether the impeached officer was President at the time of impeachment", and thus that Roberts should preside even after Trump left office. Vladeck pointed out that "if Trump resigned (or his term ended) mid-trial, it would be more than a little odd for the Chief Justice to give way to the Vice President." Georgia State University law professor Neil Kinkopf argued that "a trial of a President (even a former President) is a momentous event and having the Chief Justice preside seems more congruent with, or more fitting of, the occasion."
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