By Will Hanson

Trump on Jan. 6 speaking at the “Stop The Steal” rally. Image: Tasos Katopodis.

On January 13, seven days before the inauguration of Joseph Biden as the 46th President, the House of Representatives voted 232-197 to impeach outgoing President Donald Trump. A week later, the House sent a single article of impeachment to the US Senate. Former President Trump was accused of provoking the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.

Part of Trump’s defense team’s argument was that an impeachment trial for someone not currently in office is unconstitutional. The trial began on Tuesday, Feb. 9, with arguments and evidence presented by House impeachment managers, including previously unseen video footage of the events at the Capitol. 

Congress is permitted to remove presidents from office before their term is up. This process starts in the House of Representatives, with an investigation against the president. The House then holds a floor vote to determine if the findings are sufficient enough for articles of impeachment against the president. The articles are then presented to the Senate, which acts as the jury while the House presents their evidence as the prosecutor in a trial. The House of Representatives presented articles of impeachment against Trump in December 2019, with regards to his dealings with alleged election influence from Ukraine. He was acquitted in that trial on Feb. 5, 2020 mostly along party lines, with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) being the only Republican senator to vote to impeach on one article. 

Trump’s second impeachment stemmed from events after the November 2020 election. On January 6, just around ten blocks away from the Capitol Building during a rally billed as “Stop The Steal,” Trump pressed supporters to march on the Capitol and protest the election results. He said to the crowd, “We are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”

On Feb. 1, Trump’s team announced two new attorneys that would lead his defense team, right after parting ways with five others. His team stated many times over that Trump did not incite the insurrection, yet House impeachment managers disagreed with that statement, due to the fact that Trump’s social media rhetoric mainly challenged that the election was lost because of voting fraud. This is not the first time a federal officeholder has been impeached after leaving office; Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached after resigning in 1876. But this is the first time a president has been tried twice. 

When asked why he thinks Trump is getting impeached, Collegiate Upper School government and economics teacher Rob Wedge had two points. He first said that the 200-plus people arrested claimed they “were acting on an order from the President of the United States.” Secondly, he said, “Congress wants to prevent [Trump] from being eligible to run for office in the future.”

The trial ended with the acquittal of the former president. The House presented many videos, social media posts, and pieces of Trump’s “Stop The Seal” speech from Jan. 6 to the Senate. The vote was 57-43. However, 67 votes (two-thirds of the Senate) were required to convict Trump. Not even the seven Republican senators who voted with the Democrats could sway the trial. Trump’s defense argued that he was within his rights under the First Amendment when addressing his supporters before the riot. Trump’s acquittal means he will keep his privileges as a former president, and he may even run again in 2024.