Several possibilities are on the table after Trump is charged in a second impeachment mechanism
On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives initiated a second impeachment mechanism against Donald Trump, charging him a few days before the end of his term, which raises questions about the next steps.
The House of Representatives voted with a majority of 232 votes against 197 to accuse the president, with ten Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues.
Several possibilities are now on the table after the House of Representatives accused Trump of "inciting" to the attack launched by his supporters last week on the headquarters of Congress during a session it was holding in both chambers to confirm the victory of Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential elections.
- Trial in the Senate
After Trump is charged with "inciting rebellion," it is up to Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to forward the accusation statement to the Senate at the date decided upon.
The House of Representatives organizes a trial then.
This is what happened last year after the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives initiated an impeachment mechanism against Trump in 2019 for exercising pressure on the Ukrainian president to compel him to open an investigation against the son of his political opponent, Joe Biden.
However, the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted Trump in February 2020.
This time, however, Trump only has one week left in the White House before Biden is sworn in on January 20 as the 46th president of the United States.
The Senate is currently on a week off and is not scheduled to resume work before January 19.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Republican Senate Chairman Mitch McConnell can invite senators to come early for an emergency session, but McConnell has been informed that he will not.
Even if the House of Representatives moves "quickly", it will not be possible to hold a trial before Biden is inaugurated and Trump leaves office, McConnell said in a statement.
"Given the laws, mechanisms, and precedents governing the trials of presidents in the context of the impeachment mechanism in the Senate, there is simply no possibility of a fair and serious trial being completed before the inauguration of President-elect Biden next week," he wrote.
McConnell pointed out that the previous three isolation mechanisms lasted 83 days, 37 days and 21 days.
Schumer commented on this in a statement welcoming the House of Representatives accusing Trump, stressing that regardless of the date of the commencement of the proceedings, "Make no mistake, there will be a trial within the impeachment mechanism in the US Senate."
He added, "Donald Trump has rightly become the first president in American history to inflict the stigma of impeachment twice," adding, "The Senate is called upon to act and will begin his trial and organize a voting process to indict him."
Will there be a trial after the end of the presidential term?
An impeachment mechanism has opened for three US presidents so far, but the Senate has never been in office as president after the end of his duties.
The three impeachment mechanisms have so far been against Trump and Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, while they were all still in the White House.
Similar to the first Trump impeachment mechanism, the two mechanisms concluded in the right of Johnson in 1868 and Clinton in 1998-1999 to indict them in the House of Representatives and acquit them in the Senate.
Some US Constitution experts say the Senate cannot prosecute a former president.
But former members of the Senate and former judges in the House of Representatives have been indicted and tried in the Senate after their term ends.
If Trump's trial takes place after January 20, then control of the Senate will be transferred to the Democrats and Schumer will be the leader of the majority.
McConnell will no longer be speaker, but he will have influence over his fellow Republicans, and he has not ruled out condemning Trump.
"While the media is buzzing with speculation, I have not made my final decision as to how to vote," he said in a letter to his fellow Republicans. "I intend to hear the legal arguments when presented in the Senate."
The Kentucky Republican Senator thwarted the previous impeachment mechanism, as he succeeded in uniting Republicans in their refusal to convict the president, with the exception of Mitt Romney from Utah.
This time, however, McConnell believes, according to press reports, that Trump has committed impeachable violations, and sees an opportunity to purge the Republican Party of Trump once and for all.
The president's conviction requires the approval of a majority of two-thirds of the senators present, which means that if all Republicans attend the session, at least 17 of them must join the Democrats in the vote to confirm the accusation against the president.
Schumer said the Senate would not only vote to convict Trump of "major crimes and misdemeanors", but would also hold a vote to prevent him from running again for a federal job.
Trump has hinted that he will run again in the 2024 elections, and the Senate can prevent him from running any future race for the White House with a simple majority vote.
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