The Senate has approved a resolution, stating the rules that will govern the impeachment proceedings of Donald Trump.
After ragging their brains for more than 12 hours, the Senate today, i.e., Wednesday, January 22, 2020 has approved a resolution, stating the rules that will govern the impeachment proceedings of President of United States (U.S.) – Donald Trump.
Senate voted 53-47 to adopt the trial plan, which allows opening arguments from House lawmakers prosecuting the case. The governing rules are drawn up by the Republican Leader of the Senate – Mitch McConnell. As per the rules, Senators are not allowed to make live tweets from the chamber. They are also not allowed to bring outside reading materials in Senate. In addition, Senators cannot speak to each other during the trial.
The U.S. Senate is the upper chamber of the U.S. Congress. The lower chamber of U.S. Congress is known as U.S. House of Representatives. Together, they comprise the legislature of U.S.
Trump is the 3rd U.S. President who is on trial after being impeached. He is facing 2 articles of impeachment. Firstly, he is accused of seeking help from the president of Ukraine – Volodymyr Zelensky, for getting re-elected as the President of U.S. He is charged for holding back millions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine and suspending a proposed White House meeting with Zelensky so that he can bargain with Ukraine. In return, Ukraine would announce an investigation into Joe Biden, a Democrat and close competitor of Trump in the upcoming Presidential polls.
Secondly, after the White House refused to allow staff to testify at the first impeachment hearings, Democrats accused Trump of obstructing the Congress.
In U.S., impeachment is a process by which a legislature (usually in the form of the lower house) brings charges against a civil officer of Government for crimes alleged to have been committed, analogous to the bringing of an indictment by a grand jury. Impeachment may occur at the Federal or State level. The penalties that will be imposed by the Senate are removal from office and disqualification from holding any Federal office in the future.
For the trial, each senator has delivered an oath promising to deliver impartial justice. A group of 7 Democrats are acting as impeachment managers – essentially prosecutors for the House, who will present its case for impeachment to the Senate.
The trouble started when a whistleblower made allegations against Trump in August 2019. This led to an investigation, with hearings in the House of Representatives from October-December 2019. In December 2019, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump. This was followed by case being passed to Senate in January 2020.
It is to be noted that 2/3rd majority or 67 votes out of 100 seats are required to convict and oust Trump. But since, Republicans have a majority of 53 to 47 in the Senate, the chances are high that trump will be cleared of all the charges. However, if he is convicted and removed from office, the Vice President of U.S. – Mike Pence would become the new President of the U.S.
