The Senate decided on Tuesday that the trial of former President of the United States of America (USA) Donald Trump, accused of "inciting violence", is based on the constitution.
This position was supported by 50 Democratic senators and six Republican senators, while the remaining 44 senators from this party were against it.
The proceedings will continue on Wednesday, and both sides will have up to 16 hours to present their arguments.
More precisely, nine managers from the ranks of the majority Democrats in the House of Representatives will present the indictment, and Trump's lawyers will present his defense.
According to unofficial information, the Senate will sit on the weekend as well, although Trump's defense initially requested a break during the Jewish holiday of Shabbat on Friday and Saturday, but gave up on that request.
It is estimated that the Senate could vote on the indictment on Sunday or Monday.
The Senate would need a two-thirds majority to convict Trump, meaning 17 Republicans would have to join 50 Democrats in the vote, which is estimated to be unlikely.
At the January 26 session, 45 of the 50 Republican senators voted that the process was unconstitutional, while only five supported the Democrats' initiative to initiate the process in this body.
Even if convicted, Trump will not face immediate punishment as his term has expired.
The Senate could then, with a simple majority vote, ban him from running for public office in the future.
Considering that Republicans and Democrats have an equal number of senators 50-50, US Vice President Kamala Harris would have the deciding vote in banning Trump so that she could approve a future ban with her vote.
The House of Representatives impeached Trump on January 13, while he was still in office.
Five people, including a police officer, were killed when Trump supporters stormed the Congress building on January 6, which was supposed to verify the results of the November 3 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
The second proceeding against him in the Senate is being held under strict security measures, after he was acquitted of charges in this body for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on February 5 last year.
Who are the Republicans who supported the trial?
In addition to five Republican senators - Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Pat Toomey - who supported the Democrats' initiative at the aforementioned session on January 26, on Tuesday they were joined by Bill Cassidy from Louisiana.
This Republican senator previously supported the recent proposal of his party colleague Rand Paul that the proceedings against Trump are unconstitutional.
Republican senator: Trump's unconvincing defense
However, he told CNN that he changed his mind after an unconvincing defense presented by Trump's legal team.
"If you listened to her, it speaks for itself. She was disorganized, haphazard. They talked about a lot of things, but not the main one," Cassidy said after the Senate vote on Tuesday.
"If I'm an impartial juror trying to make a decision based on the facts presented in this matter, then the House case managers did a much better job," Cassidy pointed out.
"The question before us is whether it is constitutional to impeach a president who has left office, and the prosecutors from the House of Representatives have convincingly presented the case - while the president's team has not," added the Republican senator from Louisiana.
CNN: Trump unhappy with his defense
As CNN reports, former US President Donald Trump is unhappy with the defense presented by his legal team on Tuesday.
CNN reports that in addition to Cassidy, several other Republican senators were not satisfied with the presentation of Trump's defense, and that the prosecutors were more convincing.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn told NBC that he was not impressed by Trump's legal team.
"The president's lawyer was just rambling and repeating himself," Konin said.
"I've seen a lot of lawyers and arguments, and that wasn't one of the best I've seen," the Texas senator added.
Who are Trump's lawyers?
Seven days before the trial, Trump parted ways with the original team, including lawyers Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier.
They were quickly replaced by Bruce Castor, former district attorney and attorney David Schoen.
The BBC reminds that Schoen represented former Trump adviser Roger Stone, who was sentenced to prison and received a presidential pardon in December.
Schoen also attracted public attention for talking to Jeffrey Epstein (Jeffrey Epstein) in his last days about possible representation, and later said that he did not believe that the death of the American rich man accused of sexual abuse was the result of suicide.
Kastor, a former Pennsylvania district attorney, is known for refusing to prosecute Bill Cosby, accused of sexual assault, in 2005.
The famous comedian was eventually convicted on three counts of sexual assault in a retrial in 2018.
Trump's lawyer: Democrats don't want him as a political rival in the future
The head of Trump's legal team, Bruce Castor Jr, said on Tuesday, presenting arguments why the trial is against the constitution, that it was initiated in order to prevent the former president from running for office again.
"We are really here because the majority in the House of Representatives do not want to face Donald Trump as a political rival in the future. That is the real reason we are here, and that is why they have to jump over a legal hurdle, which otherwise they cannot bypass," Kastor believes.
He condemned the riot at the Capitol, stressing that those responsible should be prosecuted.
He adds that there is a reasonable desire to ask the question "how do we make them pay?".
However, Castor argues that Trump should not be the scapegoat for this tragedy.
"We expect US senators not to be swayed by emotion, but to do what is right," says Kastor.
Trump's defense showed a video showing all the Democratic calls for his impeachment in the last four years.
"Democrats have been playing a cynical game throughout their tenure and are still doing it," said lawyer David Schoen.
Democrats showed footage of the break-in to Congress
Previously, during the opening statement at the trial, the leading impeachment manager, a member of the House of Representatives from the ranks of the Democrats, Jamie Raskin, showed footage from January 6, the day when Trump's supporters stormed the Congress building.
Videos of the deadly attack were interspersed with footage of Trump's speech as he addressed a crowd of supporters just moments before they headed to Congress.
"We're fighting like hell," President Trump is heard saying at the rally.
"We're going to the Capitol," he said at another point.
The footage shows Trump supporters clashing with police and breaking down the front door.
At the end of the presentation, Trump's call to supporters to disperse was shown.
After the presentation of the videos, Raskin said that former President Trump's actions, which incited rebellion, were "high crimes and misdemeanors".
"If it is not a violation for impeachment, then nothing else is," he said.
Raskin, a former professor of constitutional law, pointed out that Trump wanted to make the Senate "impotent" during the presidential transition.
Raskin believes that it is one of the most important and fragile periods for the country.
Raskin said the proceedings against Trump are based on the Constitution.
"Under that Constitution and under oath, the President of the United States is prohibited from committing high crimes and misdemeanors at any time while in office. Indeed, that is one of the specific reasons that impeachment, conviction, and disqualification exist, to protect from a president who is trying to nullify the power of the people in elections and replace the rule of law with the rule of the mob," Raskin pointed out.
Democratic Prosecutors: Unbiased and Hard Facts
Raskin said his team's case against Trump "will be based on unbiased and hard facts."
"It's all about the facts," he said.
Raskin, a Democratic congressman from Maryland, said Trump sent his lawyers to the trial to "try to prevent the Senate from hearing the facts of this case."
"They want to stop the trial before any evidence is presented. Their argument is that if you commit an illegal offense in the last few weeks in power, you can do it with impunity," Raskin points out.
"If we accept this radical argument presented by President Trump's lawyers, we risk January 6 becoming our future," he added.
One of the managers of the prosecution, Democrat David Cicilline, said that Trump's tweet on January 6 shows exactly what he thought about the attacks on the Capitol.
Trump announced on Twitter that "these are the things that happen when a sacred overwhelming election victory is so crudely and viciously taken away from great patriots," calling on the rioters to go home "with love and in peace."
"Every time I read that tweet, I follow myself," Cisilini said.
"The President of the United States sided with the rebels. He celebrated their fight. He justified their attack. He told them, 'Remember this day forever,' hours after they paraded through these halls in an attempt to assassinate Vice President Pence, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. and any of us they could find," Sisilini pointed out.
He said Trump's arguments against impeachment were "absolutely wrong" and "a distraction."
Raskin: My daughter doesn't want to go back to the Capitol after the trauma
Raskin said his youngest daughter Tabitha and son-in-law Hank were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 at the time of the riot, just a day after he buried his son Tommy.
Raskin said Tabitha and Hank were with his chief of staff at the time of the break-in.
"They hid under tables and sent their last messages because they 'thought they were going to die,'" Raskin said.
"And when they were finally rescued, an hour later by Capitol officials, and we were together, I hugged them, apologized and told my daughter - who is 24 and a brilliant algebra teacher - that I was sorry and promised her no more it won't be like this the next time he comes back to the Capitol with me," Raskin added.
"And you know what she said? She said, 'Dad, I don't want to go back to the Capitol,'" Raskin said.
Trump's former chief of staff: Expected arguments from Democrats
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters that Democrats' opening arguments were "about what I expected" and that "it's hard to make a good case when you have an unconstitutional process."
He said that he was in "regular" contact with former President Trump, but that he had not discussed opening arguments in the Senate trial with him.
Asked why he was at the Capitol, he said, "I'm just coming to meet with the impeachment team," and said he would meet with them sporadically during the trial.
Republican senators: Nothing will change our minds
Sen. Roger Vicker, Republican of Mississippi, told CNN that "the Democrats sent a better team this time," calling them "very eloquent."
However, he added that "nothing has changed his position on the issue of the constitutionality of the procedure".
He believes that the trial of the former president is not constitutional.
"No," said Ron Johnson (Johnson) when asked if anything could change his position on the constitutionality of this procedure.
What will the procedure look like?
The senators make up the jury, with longtime Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont presiding, since Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who presided over the first impeachment trial a year ago in the Senate, declined to preside over the trial since Trump is no longer the president.
The impeachment managers have not yet subpoenaed witnesses, but are keeping that option open in case they need testimony to rebut the Trump team's arguments.
The timing is also uncertain because it is unclear how much time Trump's team will use, but they are not expected to use all 16 hours they have available.
In any case, the procedure is expected to be shorter than last year when it lasted three weeks.
It has been announced that the plaintiffs will rely on numerous videos of the raid, including Trump's January 6 speech before his supporters stormed Congress.
"We have the unusual circumstance that on the first day of the trial, more than 100 witnesses will be present," said one of the managers of the prosecution, a member of the House of Representatives from the ranks of the Democrats, Adam Schiff, who led the first trial to impeach Trump.
He alluded to the fact that all the senators were in the Congress building at the time of the intrusion of rioters, and had the opportunity to see for themselves the scale of these riots.
Democrats believe that it is not only a matter of formally condemning Trump, but also calling him to account.
Although they criticized the action of the former president on January 6, most Republicans will be against his punishment in order not to alienate the 74 million voters who voted for him, analysts point out.
The former US president will not testify during the Senate proceedings.
Trump's lawyers: Trial "political theater"
Lawyers for former US President Donald Trump said in a pre-trial filing Monday that protesters who stormed the Capitol on the 6th acted independently, rejecting a key charge that Trump "incited sedition" in a speech to supporters ahead of the riots.
The former president's lawyers point out that the FBI documents showed that the riot was planned days in advance, which means that Trump could not have incited the violence.
They claim that he "figuratively" used the word "fight", which "cannot be interpreted as inciting violence".
"In his speech there is no allusion or encouragement of rebellion, criminal act or any physical violence," Trump's lawyers point out.
They also insist the trial is unconstitutional because Trump has left office and is now a private citizen.
They criticized the nine "impeachment managers" -- the House Democrats who, as prosecutors, will present the case for Trump's impeachment -- accusing them of "intellectual dishonesty and factual vacuity" for the way they portrayed the former president's address to his supporters.
His lawyers described the trial as "political theater" and a "brazen political act" by Democrats meant to "silence a political opponent and a minority party."
"Justice was never sought in this impeachment proceeding," they wrote.
"Instead, this is merely a self-serving attempt by the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives to capitalize on the sense of horror and confusion that gripped all Americans of all political persuasions at the destruction of the Capitol on January 6 by several hundred people," Trump's lawyers argued.
In a speech hours before protesters stormed the U.S. Congress, which was supposed to confirm the results of the election won by Joe Biden, Trump repeated baseless claims of election fraud, urging supporters to march on the Capitol and "stop the theft." show strength" and to "fight like hell".
A few days earlier, he had called on supporters to come to Washington for a demonstration he called "Stop Theft," adding that "it's going to be wild."
His lawyers argue that he was simply exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.
At least six of the 170 indicted for the riot in the building of Congress tried to shift some responsibility to Trump.
Democratic prosecutors: Trump betrayed the American people
Impeachment managers called Trump's legal arguments "worthless" and "baseless."
"President Trump's pretrial filing confirms that he does not have a good defense to the charge of inciting sedition against the country he swore to protect. Instead, he tries to shift the blame to his supporters and invokes a series of flawed legal theories that would allow presidents to incite resort to violence and question the democratic process without fear of consequences," prosecutors said Monday.
They add that since President Trump's guilt is obvious, he is trying to avoid responsibility for inciting the January 6 riot by arguing that the Senate does not have the authority to impeach officials after he leaves office.
“The First Amendment protects our democratic system - but it does not protect a president who encourages his supporters to threaten that system with violence. If President Trump's argument were to be accepted, it would mean that Congress could not impeach a president who burned an American flag on national television, or who spoke at a Ku Klux Klan rally wearing a white hood or wore a swastika while interpreting a march through the Jewish Quarter - all that expression of opinion, which allows for the First Amendment, but would clearly be grounds for impeachment," prosecutors point out, reports CNN.
They repeated the position that Trump "betrayed the American people".
"His incitement to sedition against the United States government — disrupting the peaceful transfer of power — is the most serious violation of the Constitution ever committed by a president," they said in a statement.
Democrats believe that Trump's repeated refusal to recognize the results of the presidential election last November - as well as his fiery rhetoric in an address to supporters on January 6 - fueled the rebellion.
They argue that even though he is no longer in office, "the president must fully answer for his conduct from the first day to the last while in office."
Democrats want him disqualified from ever running again.
Trump is the only president with two impeachments
Trump is the only US president in history to have been impeached twice by the House of Representatives and one of only three to be impeached once.
This happened for the first time to the democrat Andrew Johnson (Andrew Johnson), who took power after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln), who was accused in the House of Representatives in 1868 for the illegal dismissal of the influential Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Edwin Stanton).
But the Senate lacked only one vote for Johnson's removal, but his Democrats did not propose him as a candidate in the new elections, while Stanton retained his position.
In 1998, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives impeached Democratic President Bill Clinton on charges that he lied under oath and obstructed justice in connection with a sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky.
However, the Democratic-controlled Senate did not support his removal.
Republican President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before there was even a vote on his impeachment because of the "Watergate" affair.
Bonus video:
