The Senate has formally initiated this Thursday the political trial against the president, Donald Trump, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, upon receiving the charges approved by the House of Representatives on December 18.
The seven Democratic legislators, selected yesterday as prosecutors by the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, walked towards the plenary, and the team leader, Adam Schiff, read the charges.
"President Trump used the powers of the presidency in a way that jeopardized the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the US democratic process," said Schiff.
According to the Constitution, the president of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, will preside over the trial. Roberts took an oath of the 100 members of the Senate who will serve as jurors at the trial, formalizing the start of the process.
The trial began amid new revelations and documents that dropper describe the complexity of the plot related to the pressure campaign against Ukraine.
The charges are related to Trump's alleged pressure campaign for Ukraine to investigate its political rivals, in exchange for a military aid of about $ 400 million and a possible state visit to the White House.
After sour statements from senators in both parties, Roberts tapped the deck and said the session will resume at one o'clock local time next Tuesday.
Video: These are the seven congressmen who will act as prosecutors in the political trial against Trump
And later?
On Tuesday, January 21, the Senate will debate and vote on the rules of the trial itself, after which prosecutors will have a total of 24 hours , spread over several days, to present their case against the president. Then, the defense has 24 hours to present your case. Afterwards, the senators will have 16 hours in total to ask questions.
Which are the rules?
According to the rules set forth by Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, and Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democratic minority, the senators
- They can't talk with their classmates.
- They cannot have electronic devices such as cell phones, iPhones, iPads, etc.
- They cannot have reading materials that have nothing to do with impeachment .
- They must be sitting in their seats all the time.
- They must attend all sessions at all hours.
This leaves them no choice but to focus on what they will have in front, the trial of the president.
Can we see what happens at the trial?
Congressional authorities have imposed strong security measures throughout the Capitol complex, and journalists not only need a special pass to enter the Senate, but they will have to adhere to numerous restrictions.
According to the rules that Republicans have proposed, reporters will be restricted to an area on the second floor of the Senate, without freedom to interview senators in the halls, as they usually do.
Despite objections from the media and the Standing Committee of Correspondents, which advocates the freedom of movement of journalists, the Senate will only allow a video camera - that of the Senate studies - but will prohibit access to photographers and tape recorders of Audio.
Journalists, who must already pass metal detectors to enter the Capitol, will now have to pass a second inspection to enter the full Senate and take notes of the deliberations.
Backed by other television networks, Susan Swain, the president of C-SPAN, the public channel that broadcasts all government procedures in Washington, requested permission for her organization to introduce cameras in the full Senate. The office of the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has not responded to that request.
Will there be witnesses?
The Democrats have asked for the testimony of key figures in the case: among others, John Bolton , the former National Security advisor during the scandal over the pressure campaign against Ukraine; Mick Mulvaney , the director of the Office of Management and Budget and Chief of Staff, and Rudy Giuliani , the personal lawyer of President Trump.
Giuliani was involved in getting Ukraine to investigate the former vice president, Joe Biden, Trump's most likely political rival in the presidential elections on November 3.
"There cannot be a full and fair trial in the Senate if Leader McConnell prevents the Senate from hearing witnesses and obtaining documents that President Trump is covering up," tweeted Pelosi late Wednesday.
The Senate, divided between 53 Republicans, 43 Democrats and two independents, will need the "yes" of a simple majority to approve the convocation of witnesses. For now, the Republican bench opposes witnesses by supporting the White House's argument that the political trial is "a farce" with political motivations.
Democrats would need four Republicans to break ranks to get testimonies.
Who could these key senators be? There are five: Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul and Mike Lee, who occasionally have not voted in line with their party. Many in Washington and the rest of the country have their eyes on them.
New evidence and an incriminating testimony
The political trial process, known in English as impeachment, has taken an unexpected turn: the Lower House Judiciary Committee released documents, text messages, and photos that, according to Democrats, could blame Trump and show how much he knew about Giuliani's efforts to pressure Ukraine.
At the center of these communications are efforts to expel the US ambassador from office. in Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch , because he was allegedly blocking the attempts of Trump and his allies to investigate Biden's son, Hunter.
Yovanovitch, a career diplomat, was one of the key witnesses in the hearings held by House Democrats last year.
The new evidence includes voice messages between Giuliani and Lev Parnas , a partner of his who was charged by the Southern District of New York for violating campaign financing laws .
It also includes exchanges between Parnas and Victoria Toensing , another Trump lawyer, in which she asks him to update her on her most recent efforts to harass Yovanovitch and pass it on to the "big one," which is understood to be the president.
Point directly to the president
In addition to that evidence, Parnas said in an exclusive interview with Rachel Maddow of the MSNBC network that Trump "knew exactly what was happening" despite his repeated denials of irregularities. I was aware of all my movements. I would do nothing without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the president. "
https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1217647261292867585
Parnas said that, as the US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland , testified before Congress, "everyone knew what was happening, including the president."
The White House denied these accusations. "They are made by a man currently released on bail for federal crimes and desperate to reduce the chances of ending up in jail," says a statement from press secretary Stephanie Grisham, obtained by NBC News. "This political trial," he adds, "has been a farce from the beginning."
Ukraine announced on Thursday the opening of an investigation into the alleged surveillance to which Ambassador Yovanovitch was subjected before his dismissal.
A new character enters the scene
The new evidence brought to light another key actor in this saga: Robert Hyde , who is launching as a Republican representative in Connecticut, would also have been following and intimidating Yovanovitch and would have been in contact with Parnas for all this.
In his messages with Giuliani's partner on WhatsApp, Hyde told Parnas in March 2019 that “you can do anything with money in Ukraine”
In a series of aggressive tweets, Hyde denied everything.
“How low can little Adam Bull Schiff get? I was never in Kiev. Take some text messages that my friends and I wrote to a fool we were playing with and we saw only a couple of times while we had drinks, it's definitely ridiculous. Schiff is a desperate idiot who is playing with this Lev guy, ”he wrote.
https://twitter.com/rfhyde1/status/1217291153982312449?
Grisham repeated yesterday that the political trial is "illegitimate" and accused Pelosi of lying about the urgency of the process by delaying the sending of charges. He also said Trump expects the Senate to respect his rights, something that, in his view, the lower house did not do.
Mutual recriminations between the two parties continued today, in an already established cycle: Democrats claim that no one is above the law, not even Trump, and Republicans reply that the opposition wants to claim defeat at the polls in 2016.
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