2020 trial in the US Senate
The first impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, began in the U.S. Senate on January 16, 2020, and concluded with his acquittal on February 5. After an inquiry between September and November 2019, President Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on December 18, 2019; the articles of impeachment charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. It was the third impeachment trial of a U.S. president, preceded by those of Andrew Johnson and of Bill Clinton.
The Republican majority voted on January 21 to reject 11 amendments proposed by Democrats which requested subpoena authority to introduce testimony from current and former White House officials, as well as Trump administration documents which were not provided to House investigators.
The prosecution made its opening arguments on January 22–24, and the defense made its arguments on January 25–28. This was followed by a period of questions, answers, and debate on January 29–31. On January 31, a majority of 51 senators (all Republicans) voted against allowing subpoenas to call witnesses or documents.
On February 5, the Senate acquitted Trump on both impeachment articles, as neither article obtained the support of a two-thirds supermajority of senators. Fifty-two Republican senators voted against the charge of abuse of power, and all fifty-three voted against the charge of obstruction of Congress. Mitt Romney became the first U.S. senator in history to cast a vote to convict and remove a president of his own political party from office.
On January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives voted to start a second impeachment trial of Trump, following the January 6 United States Capitol attack. The Senate acquitted Trump a second time on February 13, 2021.
Background.
Under the U.S. Constitution, the House has the sole power of impeachment (), and after that action has been taken, the Senate has the sole power to hold the trial for all impeachments (). Trump is the third U.S. president to face a Senate impeachment trial, after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
Early planning.
After the emergence of Trump's phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, House leadership came to the conclusion that impeachment might be advisable, and began an inquiry.
As this was happening, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was quietly planning a possible trial. On October 8, 2019, he led a meeting on the subject, advising the Republican Senators to craft their responses according to their own political needs. McConnell proposed two potential avenues: state opposition to the House process, or refuse to comment due to being potential jurors.
Republican plans.
As the articles of impeachment moved to a vote before the full House and referral to the Senate for trial, Mitch McConnell met with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and congressional liaison Eric Ueland, later stating, "Everything I do during this I'm coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this... I'm going to take my cues from the president's lawyers." As part of the "total coordination", McConnell said the president's lawyers could decide if witnesses would be called for the trial. McConnell also said there was "no chance" the Senate would convict Trump and remove him from office, while declaring his wish that all Senate Republicans would acquit Trump of both charges. On December 14, Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham said, "I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here... I will do everything I can to make [the impeachment trial] die quickly." Three days later, McConnell said, "I'm not an impartial juror. This is a political process. There is not anything judicial about it. Impeachment is a political decision." The Constitution mandates senators to take an impeachment oath, in which by Senate rules is stated, "I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help me God."
December 2019.
On December 15, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, in a letter to McConnell, called for Mick Mulvaney, Robert Blair, John Bolton and Michael Duffey to testify in the expected Senate trial, and suggested that pre-trial proceedings take place on January 6, 2020. Two days later, McConnell rejected the call for witnesses to testify, saying the Senate's job is only to judge, not to investigate. Schumer quickly replied, citing bipartisan public support for the testimony of witnesses who could fill in gaps caused by Trump preventing his staff from testifying in the House investigation.
On December 17, McConnell opened the Senate session with a half-hour long speech denouncing the impeachment, calling it "the most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair in modern history", and "fundamentally unlike any articles that any prior House of Representatives has ever passed". Schumer replied that he "did not hear a single sentence, a single argument as to why the witnesses I suggested should not give testimony" in the potential Senate trial.
Citing a need to "[s]ee what the process is on the Senate side", on December 18, the day of the impeachment, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declined to commit to when, or even if, the impeachment resolution would be transmitted to the Senate, saying that "[s]o far we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us."
The entire legislative branch adjourned for winter break later that day without taking action to schedule the Senate trial. The following day, McConnell and Schumer briefly met to discuss the trial.
January 2020.
Lindsey Graham proposed that he and McConnell "change the rules of the Senate so we could start the trial without [Pelosi], if necessary". On January 7, McConnell announced that he had the caucus backing to pass a blueprint for the trial, which discusses witnesses and evidence after the opening arguments. Pelosi called for the resolution to be published before she could proceed with the next steps, but McConnell asserted the House had no leverage and that there would be no negotiating over the trial. This prompted several Democratic senators to voice their readiness to have the trial begin. On January 9, Pelosi said she would deliver the articles soon, but continued to cite a need for Republican transparency in the Senate; the same day, McConnell informed members of his caucus that he expected the trial to begin the next week, and Senator Josh Hawley announced that McConnell had signed on as a co-sponsor to his resolution to dismiss articles of impeachment not sent to the Senate within 25 days. On January 10, Pelosi announced that she and Jerry Nadler were prepared to bring a resolution to appoint managers and transmit the articles of impeachment to the House floor in the next week.
On January 6, John Bolton, the former national security advisor in the White House, said he was "prepared to testify" if subpoenaed by the Senate for the impeachment trial. On January 23, as Bolton was preparing for possible Senate testimony about the assertions in the manuscript for his yet-to-be-published book, the National Security Council told him it contained classified information which "may not be published or otherwise disclosed". Bolton's attorney said he did not believe the manuscript contained sensitive information. The dispute set the stage for a prolonged review, with Bolton's attorney asking that access to the manuscript be limited to "those career government officials and employees regularly charged with responsibility for such reviews". On January 26, "The New York Times" reported that Bolton had written in his book that in August 2019, Trump told Bolton he would continue withholding $391 million in security aid to Ukraine until it assisted with investigations into Democrats, including Joe and Hunter Biden. The Associated Press independently confirmed the report a day later, while Trump labeled Bolton's claims as false (despite admitting he had not read the manuscript). On January 31, "The New York Times" reported that Bolton's book also described a May 2019 meeting where Trump, in the presence of Pat Cipollone, Mick Mulvaney and Rudy Giuliani, asked Bolton to call Zelenskyy to set up a meeting between him and Giuliani.
On January 31, the lawyer for Lev Parnas sent a letter to McConnell stating that Parnas was ready to testify before the Senate with information "directly relevant to the President's impeachment inquiry", including physical evidence of documents and messages. Parnas would be able to testify on the efforts to "remove Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and gather 'dirt' on Joe and Hunter Biden", as well as his own actions "at the direction of Mr. Giuliani, on behalf of" President Trump, which included Parnas' trips to Ukraine and meetings with aides of the Ukrainian president to convey a "quid pro quo". Parnas would be able to testify on his own direct conversations with Trump, as well as conversations between Trump and Giuliani that Parnas overheard. According to the letter, Parnas knew of "the pressure [Trump] was placing upon Ambassador Bolton to assist in resolving the apparent unwillingness of [Ukrainian] President Zelenskiy to abide by [Trump's] wishes."
Officers of the trial.
Presiding officer.
The Chief Justice is cited in Article I, Section 3, Clause6 of the United States Constitution as the presiding officer in an impeachment trial of the President. As such, Chief Justice John Roberts assumed that role and was sworn in by Senate President pro tempore Chuck Grassley on January 16, 2020. He immediately administered the oath, as required by Rule XXV, to 99 of the senators in attendance.
As in all parliamentary proceedings in the Senate, Justice Roberts is advised on procedural matters by Elizabeth MacDonough, Parliamentarian of the United States Senate.
House managers.
The House managers, who conducted the prosecution, were named by Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 15, and formally appointed by the House of Representatives later that same day by a vote of 228–193.
The seven congressmembers were chosen for their legal and national security experience and for geographic, racial, and gender diversity. Schiff had helped lead the impeachment inquiry as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, while Nadler oversaw the drafting of the articles of impeachment in the House Judiciary Committee. Lofgren had been a staffer on the Judiciary Committee during Nixon's impeachment inquiry. Jeffries is the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, the fifth-ranking member of the Democratic leadership. Demings is the former chief of police in Orlando, and is one of two Democrats on both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees. Crow was one of the "national security" freshman Democrats who co-authored an op-ed in "The Washington Post" calling for an impeachment inquiry. Garcia was a municipal judge in Houston.
Trump counsel and congressional defense team.
The White House formally announced its Senate trial counsel as being led by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow, alongside Ken Starr, Alan Dershowitz, Pam Bondi, Jane Raskin, Eric Herschmann, and Robert Ray on January 17. Additionally, Michael Purpura and Patrick Philbin participated in the trial.
On January 20, the White House named eight House Republicans to serve on Trump's defense team: Doug Collins, Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, Debbie Lesko, Mark Meadows, John Ratcliffe, Elise Stefanik, and Lee Zeldin.
Opening formalities.
Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 of the U.S. Constitution states that "The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments." Per the Senate's impeachment rules adopted in 1986, the submission of the articles to the Senate initiated the trial.
Speaker Pelosi signed the articles of impeachment on January 15 and gave them to the sergeant-at-arms, who along with House Clerk Cheryl Johnson, and the managers, delivered them to the Senate where Johnson entered the chamber and announced to Grassley and the Senate leadership that President Trump had indeed been impeached and must stand trial.
Once this happened, Grassley told the managers and their entourage to leave and return at noon the following day. They left and at the appointed hour repeated a version of the ceremony. Some Republicans criticized Pelosi for giving congressmen the pens used to sign the articles of impeachment, which have her name printed on them. McConnell commented, "It was a transparently partisan performance from beginning to end."
For this trial, the Senate President pro tempore swears in the chamber's presiding officer, the Chief Justice of the United States, who then swore in all senators who will act as jurors. Each is required to take the following oath (or affirmation):
I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the