How to convict Trump in the Senate

Make Republicans defend the indefensible

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With the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats control the Senate. The Senate majority leader controls the way the trial proceeds by introducing a set of rules to govern the trial, everything from the length of arguments by both sides to motions to introduce witnesses or evidence.  Simple majority votes control what witnesses and evidence can be introduced and by whom and for how long. 

The bottom line in the Senate impeachment trial is, if you have 51 votes, you can set the rules any way want.  This means that the second Senate trial of Trump will be very different than the first, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had 53 votes and the Democrats had 47.  Schumer will control the trial, and it is crucial that he allow plenty of time for the introduction of both evidence and witnesses.

The way to convict Trump is straightforward.  It shouldn’t take a long, drawn out procedure to force Republicans to sit there and bear witness to the horrors that occurred on January 6 when Trump incited the mob to attack the Capitol. 

Democratic impeachment managers should be prepared to produce video evidence of what Trump said at his rally to incite the riots.  Arguments should be made that Trump did not have to use specific language to urge the crowd to launch an assault the Congress.  All he had to do was inspire them to go to the Capitol, because the crowd knew what to do.  If necessary, more video evidence can be shown of other occasions when Trump has more specifically incited violence at his rallies.  Trump’s tweets complaining that the election was stolen from him should be presented as motive for his speech on January 6.  The case should be made that Trump’s speech and his tweets were part of a pattern of behavior that set the stage for violence.  The argument should be made by Democrats that if Trump did not have specific knowledge of what would happen, he should have.  His words were reckless in their disregard for their consequences.

Then the Democrats should put up large flat screen monitors and show the evidence.  If necessary, they should call expert law enforcement witnesses to take the Senators through what the videos show, step by step, enhancing audio of rioters calling out to Capitol officers that they were there at Trump’s invitation, and using slow motion and isolated shots to show specific acts of violence, organized behavior, and crimes of theft and destruction.  Witnesses such as the Capitol police who were beaten by the mob with American flags and iron pipes and fire extinguishers should be called to provide in-person testimony.  Flags bearing Trump’s name should be isolated in the videos as they are waved and used as battering rams to break windows and destroy doors.  The D.C. coroner can be called to testify and show photos of the injuries to the Capitol policeman that led to his death. 

Videos of Senators and members of congress fleeting their chambers once the assault was underway should be shown.  Members of congress cowering in the galleries should be shown.  Damage done to Nancy Pelosi’s office and every other congressional office should be shown.  Evidence of the damage done to the Capitol should be presented in photographs.  Physical evidence of the damage should be presented – broken glass, damaged desks, evidence of stolen laptops and other materials. 

Republicans should be forced to sit in the Senate chamber and watch the crimes committed by the Trump mob, every one of them.  Expert witnesses could be called to expound on the legal definitions of sedition and conspiracy to overthrow the government.  Employees such as clerks and parliamentarians from both the House and Senate should be presented as witnesses to the delays caused by the riot and the destruction done to official documents. 

In short, Republicans should be made to sit through a presentation of every piece of the evidence of the crime that was committed not only against the Capitol building, but against the Congress of the United States and the democratic process of certifying the Electoral College ballots that was interrupted.  Republican senators should be made to answer for their own toleration of Trump’s long history of inciting his followers with appeals to racism and white supremacy.  They should be made to answer for why they stood by silently while Trump created a world of conspiracies and lies unsupported by evidence about the election of 2020.  Why did they tolerate Trump’s patently illegal phone calls to secretaries of state and state legislators attempting to get them to overturn the elections in battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania and Michigan? 

The case should be made that the assault on the Capitol that Trump incited was not an isolated event.  It was the culmination of a long campaign by Trump to overturn an election that was legally conducted, tabulated and certified in all 50 states, an election that he lost by seven million popular votes and 102 electoral college votes. 

Democrats should leave no moment of video evidence unused, no Trump tweet unquoted, no piece of physical evidence of destruction unpresented.  Democrats should pound again and again on the rank hypocrisy of a party that says it supports law and order but has thus far supported the man who incited a riot that resulted in the murder of one policeman and the death of another by suicide. 

Shove their faces in the death and destruction and then challenge them to vote in favor of it by excusing the man who incited the riot that caused it. Confront the Republicans in the Senate with what happened in the very chamber where they will vote on Trump’s impeachment.  If necessary, have one of the impeachment managers walk up the steps of the senate podium stand next to the Chief Justice and point to the places on the desk where fingerprints were left by domestic terrorists who have now been arrested and stand accused of sedition and other crimes.  Then walk back into the well of the Senate and ask the Republican members to justify voting for the man who inspired the crimes that were committed in his name.

They all know Trump is guilty of having attempted to overturn a legitimate election.  There is a very real possibility that Trump will face a federal indictment in the near future. Make them confront the idea that if they exonerate him in the Senate and he ends up in handcuffs standing before a federal judge, they will look worse than the lickspittle fools they already are.