What Is Trump Charged With
On 13 January, the US House of Representatives voted by 232 to 197 to impeach Trump over incitement of insurrection after his supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn Novembers election result. 10 Republican representatives voted to impeach him, making it the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in US history.
Prosecutors place the blame for the violence squarely on the former president. Five died, hundreds were injured, members of Congress and staff were terrorized and the seat of US government building was left with bullet marks in the walls, looted art, smeared faeces in hallways all in a bid to prevent the certification of Joe Bidens election victory. President Trumps responsibility for the events of 6 January is unmistakable, the prosecutors charge in an 80-page memorandum submitted last week.
They opened their case with a chilling video of events on the day, and will argue that his actions in whipping up the crowd with unfounded accusations of election fraud endangered the life of every single member of Congress and jeopardized the peaceful transition of power and line of succession.
Trump Lawyer Says House Managers Didn’t Have A Case
From CNNs Jason Hoffman
President Trumps attorney Michael van der Veen said the House impeachment managers were like a dying animal that we had trapped in the corner, when they initially voted to call witnesses in President Trumps second impeachment trial on Saturday. Ultimately, no witnesses were called to testify in the trial.
What had happened was the day before we demolished their case, and they were like a dying animal that we had trapped in the corner. And so this morning their last gasp were swinging out at us trying to save their case, and it didn’t work, van der Veen said after the Senate found Trump not guilty of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol.
He added that House managers didnt have a case.
They shouldn’t have brought this impeachment from the beginning. It really does stem from political hatred, he said.
Van der Veen would not say whether he has spoken with Trump since the acquittal vote, but said the former President was vindicated today.
He had a good day in court today. He was vindicated. He was found not guilty. The political witch hunt that they had, that the Democrats had thrown at him was defeated, so he should feel quite pleased, van der Veen said.
The Philadelphia attorney said his home was attacked as the trial was ongoing and that his business is under siege.
Why The Push To Expunge Trumps Second Impeachment Is So Odd
No one was surprised in early 2020 when Donald Trumps first impeachment trial wrapped up in his favor. It wouldve taken a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict the then-president, and the Republican simply had too many partisan loyalists in the chamber to reach such a threshold.
What was surprising, however, was something he said two days after the Senate trial ended. Should they expunge the impeachment in the House? Trump asked rhetorically, suggesting that was precisely what he wanted to see.
As weve discussed, it was striking to see the Republican, just 48 hours after his trial was finished, despite several Republican senators conceding that Trumps illegal extortion scheme toward Ukraine was indefensible, already talking about ways to invalidate his impeachment after the fact.
The appeal did not go unnoticed among some of his allies. In fact, a couple of months ago, Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin who also happens to be a U.S. Senate candidate in Oklahoma introduced a resolution that would declare Trumps first impeachment expunged.
For the most part, even GOP lawmakers shrugged with indifference. As of this morning, the measure has picked up an underwhelming eight cosponsors, and even many of the former presidents highest profile allies didnt bother to add their names to the effort.
The number of cosponsors for expunging Trumps second impeachment is triple the number for undoing his first impeachment.
Thats not encouraging.
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‘the Footage Is Horrific’: Senators React To Gripping New Video Of Capitol Riot
The video demonstrated how close rioters came to then-Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress. And the impeachment managers argued that the video showed clearly that the mob of pro-Trump supporters was there for the president, and many believed they were there at the president’s behest.
The impeachment managers, however, made a broader case than Trump’s comments on Jan. 6. They argued that Trump laid the groundwork for false grievance on the part of his supporters with two months of baseless claims of widespread election fraud that cost him the electionand years, in fact, of tolerating, condoning and encouraging violence.
Paul Ryan: A ‘lot’ Of Republicans Wanted To Impeach Trump But ‘didn’t Have The Guts’
Former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said at a South Carolina political appearance that a lot of Republicans wanted to impeach President Donald Trump but that they didnt have the guts.
The former Wisconsin congressman made the remarks at a gathering Wednesday in Florence, where he praised Rep. Tom Rice , whom he has endorsed, for having the courage to vote for impeachment after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Rice and nine other Republicans joined with Democrats to vote for impeachment, making Trump the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice, although the Senate did not convict him either time.
Rice is now locked in a heated battle for reelection for a sixth term against state Rep. Russell Fry, who is backed by Trump. The former president is determined to punish any Republican who failed to show loyalty to him.
There were a lot of people who wanted to vote like Tom but who just didnt have the guts to do it, said Ryan, The Myrtle Beach Sun News reported.
There are a lot of people who say theyre going to vote their conscious, theyre going to vote for the Constitution, theyre going to vote for their convictions, but when it gets hard to do that, they dont do it, he said.
Tom Rice is a man of conviction, Ryan added.
Ryan last week on CNBC criticized entertainer lawmakers from both parties who strive to develop a noticeable brand rather than work with colleagues to pass legislation.
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Biden Leads Trump In 2024 Poll
Wednesday 1 June 2022 09:00 , Stuti Mishra
Former president Donald Trump may lead just about every survey of the potential 2024 Republican primary field, but there’s one key rival he continues to trail: Joe Biden.
The current president would win 42 per cent of the vote, according to a poll conducted by YouGov and Yahoo! News. Mr Trump followed close behind with the support of 39 per cent of respondents.
The results come despite Mr Biden’s underwater approval rating, which was at 42 per cent in the same survey.
John Bowden has more details on this here:
‘he Must Be Convicted It’s That Simple’: Impeachment Managers’ Close Their Case
Van der Veen reiterated one of the defense team’s central arguments: that a president no longer in office can not be impeached, a claim disputed by many constitutional scholars.
He also argued that Trump’s due-process rights were violated and that his speech is protected under the First Amendment.
“They have carried out a grossly unconstitutional effort to punish Mr. Trump for protected First Amendment speech. It’s an egregious violation of his constitutional rights,” he said. “It is an unprecedented action with the potential to do grave and lasting damage to both the presidency, and the separation of powers and the future of democratic self government.”
Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., had spent a good deal of his arguments this week claiming that as a president, not all of his words are, in fact, protected as free speech.
“They present President Trump as merely, like a guy at a rally expressing a political opinion that we disagree with and now we’re trying to put him in jail for it,” he said earlier this week. “That has nothing to do with the reality of these charges or his constitutional offense.”
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney arrives at the Capitol for the fifth day of the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump on Saturday. Romney was one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict.hide caption
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Gopers Blast Unconstitutional Biden Calls For Assault Weapons Ban
The Democrats lead lawyer in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump is planning to enter a packed field running for New Yorks newly drawn 10th Congressional district that covers lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Daniel Goldman, the chief Democratic House Intelligence Committee lawyer during the first impeachment trial of Trump, is expected to announce a run for the seat, Axios reported Tuesday.
He will face several contenders like former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Rep. Mondaire Jones, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou and Councilwoman Carlina Rivera in the Democratic primary for the open seat.
Goldman, who lives in the district and was rumored to be eyeing a run for weeks, ran for New York attorney general last year, but dropped out after incumbent Attorney General Letitia James announced she would run again.
The former assistant US attorney took center stage back in 2019 as the Democrats lead counsel during Trumps impeachment investigation.
He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in New York, where he took down Mafia bosses and corrupt Wall Street executives before joining Congress as general counsel for the House Intelligence Committee in early 2019.
The Post reported last week that Jones, who currently reps the 17th Congressional district, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had made phone calls to discourage Goldman from entering the race, according to Democratic sources.
Expert Says Impeachment Proceedings Cost Less Than $33 Million
Although there are no estimates for the cost of Trumps second impeachment or either Senate trial, experts told PolitiFact they cost far less than $33 million.
“Its hard to pinpoint exactly how much the impeachment cost,” Steve Ellis, president of the nonprofit Taxpayers for Common Sense, told PolitiFact. “But I sincerely doubt it was anywhere close to $33 million.”
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Trumps first impeachment investigation was headed by the House Judiciary Committee, so it didnt cost taxpayers additional money because all funds came from the existing congressional budget. The second impeachment proceeding was much shorter than the first and did not include an investigation, indicating it was likely much cheaper than the first.
USA TODAY could find no reputable estimates that put the cost anywhere near $33 million.
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What Were The Accusations Against The President
In 2019, the House adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump, abuse of power and obstruction of justice.
The House alleged that Trump had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 US presidential election to help his re-election bid.
Lawmakers also claimed the president obstructed the inquiry itself by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony.
The inquiry also reported that Trump withheld $391million in military aid, and an invitation to the White House to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in order to influence Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden.
The inquiry reported that Trump prompted a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election.
A call between Trump and Zelensky on July 25, 2019 was particularly important – whistleblower Alexander Vindman was a participant in the call and later informed Congress.
House Judiciary Republicans Account Celebrates Johnny Depp Verdict
07:13 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
The House Judiciary Committees Republicans Twitter account celebrated a jury in Virginias verdict that decided in actor Johnny Depps favour on Wednesday.
The account tweeted out a GIF of Mr Depps character Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.
House Judiciary GOP
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Trump Impeachment: How Ukraine Story Unfolded
The US House of Representatives has impeached President Donald Trump, setting up a trial in the Senate. How did we get to this point?
Mr Trump is only the third American president to face the threat of being forced from the White House via impeachment.
He is accused of withholding nearly $400m in congressionally approved military aid in order to pressure Ukraine’s new president into launching an inquiry into his 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden and Mr Biden’s son.
The US president denies doing anything wrong.
This is a complicated story. Here’s a simple guide to the sequence of events – in three parts.
President Donald Trump: First Impeachment
In February 2020, President Donald Trump was impeached on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. This stemmed from a phone call he had with the recently elected President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in July of 2019, in which Trump made a request for the president to investigate the energy company, Burisma, which Joe Bidens son worked for. In exchange for this, the US leader would agree to a highly prized face-to-face meeting between the two presidents.
There was a lot of debate over this and the House Intelligence Committee Democrats released a 300-page report outlining their impeachment inquiry that several weeks. There were numerous dramatic public hearings and additional documents requested from the White House, it was an indictment of Trumps pressure on the Ukraine and, they say, his threat to the US system of government.
Trump was acquitted in the Senate along near party lines in a bitterly partisan process. The Senate voted 52-48 to acquit Trump on abuse of power and 53-47 to acquit him on obstruction of Congress, with Mitt Romney the sole Republican to vote to convict.
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Trump Impeachment Trial: Live Updates
House Democratic managers stressed in their presentation how close a mob of Trump supporters got to Pence, and that some rioters had yelled, “Hang Mike Pence.” Managers’ reconstructed timeline of the events also included Trump’s tweets throughout Jan. 6.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the lead impeachment manager, was first to respond to Romney’s question. He noted the events of Jan. 6 were broadcast on live television and on the radio, saying Trump had to know that the rioters had already breached the building and were armed with weapons, and that the police were outnumbered.
“Here are the facts that are not in dispute,” Raskin said. “Donald Trump had not taken any measures to send help to the overwhelmed Capitol police. As president, when you see all of this going on and the people around you are imploring you to do something, and your vice president is there, why wouldn’t you do it?”
Raskin also noted remarks by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who has told reporters that he spoke to Trump over the phone as the mob began ransacking the Capitol. During their brief conversation, Tuberville said he told the former president that Pence had been evacuated from the chamber moments earlier.
“Sen. Tuberville specifically said that he told the president, ‘Mr. President, they just took the vice president out, I’ve got to go,’ ” Raskin said.
That conversation took place shortly after 2 p.m., Raskin noted.
