The Hill quoted a Senate source as saying Monday (Jan. 25) that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will not preside over former President Trump‘s second impeachment trial in the Senate, but will instead be presided over by the most senior Democratic senator.
The report said the impeachment trial, which began Feb. 8, will be presided over by Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate’s most senior Democratic senator.
Leahy’s spokesman said the decision to chair the trial rests with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“The leaders have been negotiating all process issues regarding the trial and have been deferring to them for any and all announcements on this and all other matters.” Leahy’s spokesman said.
Leahy was elected Monday as the new Senate president pro tempore and was sworn in by Vice President He Jinli. And Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, now becomes chairman emeritus.
Republicans argue that the move would create a conflict of interest because Leahy had voted to impeach Trump for the first Time last February, finding Trump guilty of two articles of impeachment.
Republicans also said the Senate should not impeach a former president and that only Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts is qualified to preside.
“There’s only one constitutional process for impeachment, and it’s for the president, not for a non-president,” said Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Texas), “and it requires the chief justice to preside.”
The House voted largely along party lines on the 13th, passing a bill of impeachment by a vote of 232 to 197, saying former President Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” by inciting a mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Trump became the only president ever to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives. The Democratic-held House of Representatives passed the first articles of impeachment against Trump in 2019, accusing him of “high crimes and misdemeanors” for pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
The first impeachment was held up by the Democrats for 4 weeks and sent to the Senate, and the second will be sent to the Senate in less than 2 weeks, including the swearing-in of President Biden and the Senate hearing of several of Biden’s nominees.
The House will submit articles of impeachment against Trump at 7 p.m. Monday (25). Senators will be sworn in for the hearing on Tuesday (26th) in accordance with procedure.
Trump has until Feb. 2 to respond to the articles of impeachment.
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