The second impeachment trial of former President of the United States Donald Trump should ultimately not be extended and could end in the coming hours. The Democrats and the Republican’s defense found an agreement on Saturday February 13 to avoid calling witnesses. The said agreement was announced by the two parties in open session in the Senate, which since Tuesday judges the former tenant of the White House for “Incitement to insurgency”, after several of his supporters led an assault on Capitol Hill on January 6.
Earlier today, Jamie Raskin, head of the Democratic prosecutors, had expressed his willingness to hear Jaime Herrera Beutler, elected Republican in the House of Representatives. His testimony was finally read in session and entered into the file. Each party will now present its conclusions.
The latter, who is among the ten elected members of the Grand Old Party (out of 211) to have voted in favor of the impeachment of Donald Trump on January 13, reported a lively exchange between the leader of the Republicans in the House, Kevin McCarthy , and Mr. Trump in the January 6 attack.
Citing a conversation that was reported to her, she explained in a statement on Saturday that Mr McCarthy called the president to ask him to publicly urge the rioters to calm. Mr. Trump then allegedly claimed to have heard that these protesters were in fact “Antifa”, an extreme left movement. Mr. McCarthy would have told him that they were indeed his supporters. “It was then, according to Mr. McCarthy, that the president said, ‘Well, Kevin, I imagine these people are angrier than you are about the election.’ [remportée par son rival Joe Biden et dont Donald Trump a contesté, sans preuve, les résultats] “
Towards a plausible acquittal
Nevertheless, Donald Trump has every chance of being acquitted, as in his first impeachment trial a year ago. Especially since the leader of the Republican senators, Mitch McConnell, let know this Saturday in a message to his parliamentary group and quoted by the American media (including the Associated Press agency) that he would vote in this direction.
“Although this is a difficult decision, I am convinced that impeachment trials are a tool primarily intended to rule out” a person responsible for his functions, “And therefore we do not have the required skills”, argued the Kentucky elected official after leaving doubt for weeks.
The announcement of the influential strategist sounds the death knell for Democratic hopes to condemn the former president: it now appears even more unlikely that seventeen Republican senators will vote with the 50 Democrats for a conviction.
In his message, Mitch McConnell was however careful to point out that a president could be sued after leaving the White House. One way of responding to Democratic prosecutors, for whom admitting that a president cannot be tried in the Senate after he leaves would be like saying that American leaders have a free hand to commit crimes, even in recent weeks of their mandate.
Former close and ally of Donald Trump, the senator from Kentucky has not met with the previous president since he recognized in mid-December the victory of Joe Biden, the latter’s Democratic rival. On January 19, Mr. McConnell had also directly implicated the former tenant of the White House in the assault on the Capitol, believing that the latter had “Prompted” the assailants, by “Watering down lies” especially.
