Live Blog: Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial Set to Begin
National Guard Troops walk along the US Capitol Building on the eve of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.Europa Press/AP
Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.Good morning and welcome to the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump.
The historic proceedings—which mark both the first time a president has been impeached twice, as well as the first impeachment trial for a former president—come about a month after the House charged Trump with inciting the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The attack left five people, including a Capitol police officer, dead. Today’s debate, set to begin at 1 p.m. ET, will largely focus on the constitutionality of the trial, with Trump’s defense arguing it isn’t because he’s no longer in office.
With many Republicans signaling they won’t vote to convict Trump no matter the evidence, Trump’s acquittal is all but a foregone conclusion, and the trial is expected to be an unusually swift one. But as my colleague Pema Levy explains, what happens over the next week or so will still be incredibly consequential and perhaps even more damaging for Republicans than Trump’s first impeachment. Follow along below for the latest:
9:00 a.m. ET: Another possible piece of evidence the prosecution could rely on is this video from “Stop the Steal” organizer Alan Hostetter, during which Hostetter called for the “execution” of Trump’s political foes. “The enemies and traitors of America, both foreign and domestic, must be held accountable,” Hostetter told the rally, as seen in the video below. “And they will. There must be long prison terms, while execution is the just punishment for the ringleaders of this coup.”
8:00 a.m. ET: Before things get started, let’s kick things off with a look at the rather damning evidence produced by none other than participants of the pro-Trump mob.
According to our investigation, of the 194 federal criminal cases brought against insurrectionists so far, at least 13 people charged cited Trump explicitly as the reason they marched on the Capitol. At least three suspects who said Trump compelled them to join the siege were seen in video footage amid violent altercations: One who allegedly struck a police officer with a fire extinguisher, another who allegedly struck an officer with a baseball bat, and another who was among a group breaching the speaker’s lobby doors just before one pro-Trump rioter was fatally shot by a police officer. Among those charged in the insurrection to date are at least five members of the neofascist Proud Boys, whose Long Island chapter announced on social media in December that Trump had given them “the green light” for January 6.
House managers are likely to point to these exact accounts as evidence that the former president directly encouraged the Capitol insurrection.
