President Trump is to face a trial by the US Senate after becoming the first president in US history to be impeached twice. It is thought unlikely that Trump will be forced to leave office before the end of his official term on the 20th of January.
The impeachment came after a majority of the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on the grounds that he incited the riot at the Capitol building in which 5 people died. The riotous mob attacked the Capitol building in Washington D.C. and occupied it over for 4 hours following a speech by President Trump in which he repeated false claims that the US election in November was carried out fraudulently. President Trump was defeated by president-elect Joe Biden by over 7 million votes.
The trial of the President will now take place after he officially leaves office, as the process of carrying out the trial and reaching a verdict would simply not be feasible in the short length of time Trump has left in office. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's senior Republican, said, regarding holding a trial before President Trump leaves office:
"Given the rules, procedures, and Senate precedents that govern presidential impeachment trials, there is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week. Even if the Senate process were to begin this week and move promptly, no final verdict would be reached until after President Trump had left office. This is not a decision I am making; it is a fact."
Previous impeachment trials, such as the impeachment of Bill Clinton following the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the previous impeachment of Trump in 2019 following the Ukraine scandal, have usually taken several weeks to several months to reach a conclusion.
The impeachment papers state that President Trump:
"Repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were fraudulent and should not be accepted [and that he] wilfully made statements to the crowd that encouraged and foreseeably resulted in lawless action at the Capitol."
It goes on to say:
"President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government, threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperilled a coequal branch of government."
Since the riot at the Capitol building, President Trump has released a video statement in which he said that no true supporter of his would have acted in this way, though he still maintains that the election was stolen from him. In the statement, he said:
"I want to make it very clear: I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week… No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. We cannot tolerate it."
There is mounting speculation that a huge number of Trump supporters will take to the streets across the United States as Biden is sworn into office, leading authorities to fear another outbreak of violence. President Trump also released an official statement demanding that these individuals refrain from any illegal activity. It read:
"In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind. That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You."
If Trump is convicted by a two-thirds Senate majority at the forthcoming trial, he will be banned from ever running for President again.
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