What’s next for Trump’s trial? What we know after most GOP senators voted against

All but five Republican voted for an effort on Tuesday that would’ve dismissed former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial as unconstitutional, signaling that a conviction by the U.S. Senate is proving to be more unlikely.

The effort was spearheaded by Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, who argued that it was unconstitutional to hold a trial for a former president. Although the 55-45 vote dismissed Paul’s objection and cleared the way for the trial to continue as planned, it suggests that the Senate likely won’t have enough votes to convict Trump and that he’ll will be acquitted for the second time.

“Private citizens don’t get impeached. Impeachment is for removal from office, and the accused here has already left office,” Paul said, later declaring victory after the vote: “Forty-five votes means the impeachment trial is dead on arrival.”

The U.S. House of Representatives impeached Trump on Jan. 13 on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the Capitol siege. Before the attack, Trump spoke outside the White House at what he billed a “Save America Rally,” where he continued his false claims that the election was stolen and encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol.

Trump was the first president to be impeached twice. No president has ever been convicted in the Senate and doing so would require a two-thirds majority vote. If all Democratic senators vote to convict, 17 Senate Republicans are still needed to convict Trump.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, reportedly told associates that he thinks Trump “committed impeachable offenses,” but he still voted with the majority of Senate Republicans to question the constitutionality of the trial.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, called the Republican effort “flat-out wrong by every frame of analysis — constitutional context, historical practice, precedent and basic common sense,” according to The Washington Post.

The GOP lawmakers who voted against Paul’s objection along with all 50 Democrats include Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

What’s next for the trial?

Lawmakers have agreed to a delay in the impeachment trial, which is expected to begin on Feb. 9, giving Trump’s defense team and House impeachment managers time to prepare. The delay also allows the Senate to process more of Biden’s Cabinet nominations.

House managers are still parsing through video footage from the Capitol attack and are considering using evidence from them to demonstrate how Trump’s supporters were responding to his words, CNN reported.

Although the Tuesday vote has cast doubt on whether Trump will be convicted, Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican and Senate minority whip, said the vote “won’t bind lawmakers” to their stance once the trial begins.

“It was a question on the constitutionality of it. I don’t think it binds anybody once the trial starts,” Thune said, according to CNN. “But I think most of us thought that the threshold issue of whether or not you can remove as the Constitution suggests somebody who is no longer in office — I think most of our members concluded that from a constitutional standpoint is on really shaky ground.”

There is at least one example of a government official being impeached after they left their post, according to NBC News. A trial was held for Secretary of War William Belknap after he resigned in 1876, but the Senate did not convict him of the corruption charges brought against him.

Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, said that he hasn’t decided on whether to convict Trump and wanted to hear remarks on the constitutionality of the trial, according to The Washington Post.

Collins, however, expressed doubt at a Trump conviction, despite voting with the Democrats.

“Do the math,” she said, CNN reported. “I think it’s extraordinarily unlikely that the president will be convicted.”

This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 11:42 AM with the headline "What’s next for Trump’s trial? What we know after most GOP senators voted against."