(Bloomberg) — The Senate will begin hearing the House impeachment managers’ case against President Donald Trump this week on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
In a trial set to begin Tuesday at 1 p.m.
The cable news networks, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, are likely to show significant portions of the trial. C-SPAN 2, which covers Senate floor proceedings, will broadcast it on cable and online.
Most of the major news outlets will be live streaming on YouTube.
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First Steps
Starting Tuesday, the trial is expected to run every day but Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m., under Senate rules adopted in 1986.
McConnell will offer a resolution supplementing the rules to track the procedures used in President Bill Clinton’s 1999 trial by setting time limits for each side’s opening arguments followed by questions from senators.
After that, senators would decide whether to call witnesses and seek additional documents.
The Trial
The trial then would move forward. The impeachment managers would go first, likely taking two to three days to make their case. Trump’s defense team would have a similar amount of time.
Senators would then ask questions in writing to Chief Justice John Roberts, who would read them to the legal teams.
Either the legal teams or senators may call on Roberts to make procedural decisions. In Clinton’s trial, a senator objected to the lawmakers being referred to as jurors, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist agreed.
Roberts can also choose to put procedural issues up for a vote, and any decision he makes can be overruled by a majority vote of the senators.
Trump has tweeted that the senators should not seek testimony from witnesses or subpoena additional documents, arguing that “all of this work was supposed to be done by the House,” a line echoed by Republican leadership. But four Republicans — Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee — have said they’re open to joining with Democrats to call witnesses.
Trump’s Defense Team
Trump’s lawyers will make opening and closing statements and rebut the House impeachment managers:
Pat Cipollone: A former partner at a white-shoe law firm and commercial litigator whose clients included Trump’s business, Cipollone became White House counsel in 2018.
Jay Sekulow: Chief counsel to the conservative American Center for Law and Justice and a talk radio host, Sekulow is part of Trump’s personal legal team.
Kenneth Starr: The former independent counsel’s investigation of Clinton led to his impeachment for lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Alan Dershowitz: A member of O.J. Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers, the former Harvard law professor wrote “The Case Against Impeaching Trump” in 2018.
The team also includes Robert Ray, a former Whitewater prosecutor; former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi; a Florida lawyer for Trump, Jane Raskin; and two Cipollone deputies, Michael Purpura and Patrick Philbin.
The Scoopess 