“Incitement to insurrection.”
That is the accusation raised by the only article of the resolution to be charged in a political trial ( impeachment ) against President Donald Trump who presented the Democratic Party this Monday in the United States House of Representatives.
The resolution presents how Trump addressed a crowd of supporters shortly before dozens of them violently stormed the Capitol on January 6.
The signatories accuse the president of making statements that “encouraged and predictably resulted in” the illegal actions that occurred at the headquarters of Congress.
The events of that day left five dead .
The document is expected to be put to a vote on Wednesday in the plenary session of the House of Representatives, where it only needs a simple majority to pass.
If so, Trump would become the only president in the history of the United States in receive a second impeachment from the House of Representatives.
And another unusual fact, given the few days left until Trump leaves the White House (the 24, it is said that the impeachment itself, which is the responsibility of the Senate, could be defined after his departure from power.
Is this possible? Let’s recap.
Two ways to expulsion
The requests for Trump to be removed from the presidency after the assault on the Capitol by his followers last Wednesday have been increasing as the days have passed.
Democrats and some voices in the Republican field demand that Trump be held accountable for actions and words that they say led to the alarming unrest in Congress.
Lawmakers are aware that it may be too late to remove Trump from the presidency before the term expires but still want to pass the impeachmen and, where appropriate, potentially convict him also to take away the benefits enjoyed by the former presidents and Disqualify him from holding public office in the future .
To achieve their objectives, the Democrats on Monday undertook two parallel paths in the House of Representatives: introduced the resolution of impeachment and before that they insisted on asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the amendment 69 of the Constitution.
Quick presentation
Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin presented to the House the resolution in which his party officially requires Pence and members of Trump’s cabinet to remove him of power through the aforementioned amendment.
In the first instance, the resolution had to be adopted unanimously, but was blocked by Republican Alex Mooney, congressman from West Virginia.
The document requires a simple majority to get ahead in the vote this Tuesday .
Pence has 24 hours from the adoption of the resolution to invoke the amendment and prevent the Chamber from proceeding with the impeachment .
The part of the amendment 025 under discussion is section 4, which allows the vice president, together with a majority of the cabinet, declare Trump incompetent.
To do so they have to sign a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House and the leader of the Senate in which they declare the President incapable of governing or incapable of “performing the powers and d eberes from office. ”
If the president fights the measure, then it is up to Congress to make a decision and, in the meantime, the vice president assumes power.
There is no indication that Pence plus a minimum of eight Cabinet members support invoking the amendment, and less after learning that the president and vice president had a cordial meeting at the White House late Monday.
So we return to the path of impeachment .
Unprecedented
Faced with little prospect of the amendment going forward 69, attention is focused on the possible implementation of what would be the second political trial against Trump.
The president was submitted to one at the end of 2019 on accusations of having sought the help of Ukraine to obtain damaging information about Hunter Biden, son of the then only possible rival election and is now president-elect.
The impeachment (the formal accusation) was approved by the House of Representatives but in the subsequent trial the Senate acquitted him , in February 2020 , with only one Republican vote in favor of the conviction, that of the senator from Utah Mitt Romney .
The resolution presented this Monday speaks of the different occasions in which Trump has tried to delegitimize the elections of November 3 and accuses him of threatening “the integrity of a democratic system.”
“With this conduct he demonstrated that will continue to be a threat to national security, democracy and the Constitution ” says the document, which also mentions Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he asked him to “find” 11. 780 votes to reverse the election results in that state.
The article also mentions section 3 of the amendment 14 of the Constitution that prohibits anyone has participated in an “insurrection or rebellion ”Hold public office.
The article, if the government does not adopt the amendment 25, a vote is due in the House on Wednesday. If approved, the case goes to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is needed to convict the president.
This point has never been reached in US history, and there is no indication that Democrats can get that support in the Senate, where they only hold half the seats.
Calendar tight
A circular issued by the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, states the 19 January as the first date on which the upper house could begin to consider the resolution of impeachment , just one day before the change of government.
According to the rules of procedure of the Senate, the formal trial of Tr ump couldn’t start until 1 p.m. on 20 January -one hour after the president has left the White House – or even a day later.
But House Democrats have indicated that they may not send the articles of impeachment to the Senate until the first ones pass 100 Biden’s days in office.
That would allow the new president to confirm the members of his government in the corresponding Senate hearings and to put in place some of his key policies, especially those related to the coronavirus, something that would have to wait if the Senate is already busy with the impeachment .
In this sense, the president-elect raised an intermediate proposal this Monday: that the Senate, which will soon be under Democratic control, dedicate half day to each issue.
“I think it is extremely important that there be a real and serious effort to make those who participated in sedition and threatened lives, they committed vandalism on private property and caused great damage, be held accountable ”, he defended.
Why continue with the trial?
There is no shortage of people wondering why start processes as complicated as the invocation of the amendment 69 or the second impeachment if there is barely a week left for the change of government.
In this sense, some voices from Democrats and Republicans seem more inclined to debate and pass a vote of no confidence in Trump for the events of the 6th.
The Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, refuses to elect this option as insufficient.
Those who pursue the idea of the trial politicians point out that the objective goes beyond removing Trump from the presidency.
If he is convicted, the Senate can also prohibit him from holding any public office in the future.
In addition, he would lose the benefits granted to his predecessors according to the Law of Ex-Presidents (2019) which include a pension, medical insurance, a travel budget up to US $ 1 million and a series of security measures, all paid for by the contributors tes.
Is valid after 24 January?
Constitutional experts disagree on whether it is possible that a impeachment advance to trial in the Senate once the president is no longer in power.
Article II section 4 of the Constitution reads:
“The Constitution gives Congress the authority to impeach and remove from power the President, Vice President, and all civil positions in the US federal government. . for treason, bribery or other high crimes and offenses “.
As nothing explicit about limits of dates to carry ahead of the political trial, jurists choose to interpret the constitutional articles in one way or another.
“In this context, it means withdrawing of the position and it is a political condemnation “, Greg Woods, professor of Judicial Studies at San José State University (California) tells BBC Mundo.
” Since the incumbent president has been voted out of office through a legal election, and with just over a week remaining, the political condemnation of impeachment is irrelevant, no longer needed “, he maintains.
” Instead of impeachment , we are more likely to see some form of censorship by the legislative and / or possible criminal charges presented by the Department of Justice or in one or more of the states ”, adds Woods.
On the other hand, there are experts who consider that if the House of Representatives approves to formally accuse the president while he is in power, the Senate can judge him even if he has already left office.
Most likely we will not have a definitive answer until it is Present the situation and the matter is resolved in court.
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