House Democrats will deliver their impeachment case “like a violent crime prosecution” against former President Donald Trump when the trial convenes in the Senate Tuesday afternoon.
Trump’s second impeachment trial starts at 1 p.m. and is expected to last a week or more. He is charged with one article of impeachment for citing an insurrection ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a violent throng of his supporters.
Senior House Democratic aides on the impeachment managers’ team said Tuesday the prosecution led by House impeachment managers will make it difficult for Republicans to vote to acquit the former president.
“You are going to see a devastating case against Trump in the managers’ presentation in the coming days,” a senior aide told reporters. “It will tell the full story, woven together in a way that it hasn’t been done before, that shows not only the violence but how the president incited it.”
Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died as a result of the Capitol attack. Dozens were injured, and the Capitol was defaced and damaged. The attack left lawmakers terrified for their own safety, and the campus is now surrounded with 8-foot barbed wire fencing while the building is populated with thousands of National Guard troops.
The nine Democrats who will serve as impeachment managers have been working to construct the case against Trump involving an incident that left them terrified and fearful for their own safety, they said.
“This is personal for them,” aides said.
Impeachment managers this week will prosecute a case that definitively blames Trump for the attack, Democratic aides said Tuesday.
“The attack happened in plain sight,” a Democratic aide said. “There is compelling, overwhelming evidence and video elsewhere. We plan to fully utilize all the evidence available in all the forms, including evidence that nobody has seen.”
The aide declined to say what unseen evidence the managers planned to present but said they will prove Trump caused the attack by stirring up the mob well before the incident began and that he did nothing to stop it.
The aides said they believe the case will convince Republicans to vote to convict Trump, although it would take 17 GOP senators to provide the needed supermajority.
“Once they see that this president did, in fact, incite a violent insurrection in order to hold on to power, I think it very well may be the case that reluctant senators change their minds and vote to convict,” a Democratic aide said.
The Senate trial on Tuesday will center on the question of whether it is constitutional, since Trump has left office.
Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Joe Neguse of Colorado will argue the trial is constitutional and are likely to prevail in a vote later on Tuesday.
“We’ll be looking forward to leaving no doubt that President Trump must be held accountable and forced to defend his indefensible conduct,” a Democratic aide said.
