Trump acquitted in second impeachment trial

Trump acquitted in second impeachment trial

April Carr, Writer

45th president Donald J. Trump has been recently impeached for the second time at the very end of his term. At the end of 2019, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, however, it was dismissed and Trump remained in office.

According to the Washington Post, Trump has been impeached for the second time for instigating the riot at the U.S capitol. The article regarding the impeachment had three main points, mainly including that Trump committed high crimes: he falsely claimed he won the election, as well as instigated the riot. Another thing that was mentioned in the article was that he held Georgia’s Secretary of State, urging him to find more votes for Trump.

Because Trump is already out of office, the impeachment can not throw him out— but it can ban him from ever running for federal office again. According to CNN politics, the trial will begin on Feb. 8, however, impeachment managers do not think the trial will last that long.

According to New York Times, Donald Trump’s five attorneys had decided to part ways from him after Trump wanted to focus on baseless voter fraud claims. The attorneys were led by David Scheon, who works in Alabama and New York, as well as Bruce Castor Jr., who was a former district attorney in Pennsylvania, and Michael van der Veen who specializes in personal injury law.

Many Republicans think it was unconstitutional to convict Trump because he has already left office, but Democrats rejected this claim. According to CNN Politics, the Democrat House managers asked for witnesses to which Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael van der Veen stated that Trump’s team was going to need 100 depositions. However, the trial did end without witnesses.

According to Bloomberg, in order to find Trump guilty, at least 17 Republicans would have had to vote with all 50 Democrats, but only seven Republicans voted with all 50 democrats, so Trump was not convicted.