U.S. House Democrats, Trump lawyers file legal briefs in impeachment case

Washington, USA | THE INDEPENDENT |    A group of House Democrats and former President Donald Trump’s lawyers respectively filed legal briefs on Tuesday in an impeachment case.

The Democrats, known as the impeachment managers, accused Trump of inciting the chaotic and deadly violence on the U.S. Capitol last month, while urging the U.S. Senate to convict him and bar him from holding office again.

Trump’s legal team argued the impeachment case is unconstitutional as the Republican had already left office.

The Senate trial of the Trump impeachment is expected to start next week.

The House, where Democrats have a majority, voted to impeach Trump over “incitement of insurrection” on Jan. 13, a week after the Capitol riot and a week before the official end of his presidency.

Trump is the first and only U.S. president to be impeached twice by the House.

The lower chamber impeached Trump in 2019 after an inquiry triggered by a whistleblower complaint that raised concerns about the White House’s interactions with Ukraine. The Republican-led Senate later acquitted the president, allowing him to continue holding office.

The U.S. Constitution provides the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment” and that “the Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”

Through the impeachment process, the U.S. Congress charges and then tries an official of the federal government for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Conviction can only happen in the U.S. Senate and requires at least two-thirds of its members, or 67 senators, to vote in favor of at least one article of impeachment after a trial. The chamber is now evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

No U.S. president has ever been convicted by the Senate following an impeachment.

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XINHUA