Senate Trial of Donald Trump

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he US Senate has found that the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is constitutional, allowing full proceedings to begin.

Mr Trump's defence team argued that he could not face trial after leaving the White House.

But a 56-44 majority voted in favour of continuing, with a handful of Republicans backing the measure.

However Mr Trump is almost certain to be acquitted because only six Republican senators voted to move forward with impeachment, well short of the 17 Republicans whose votes would be needed to convict Mr Trump.

Democrats prosecuting the case opened the proceedings by showing a dramatic video montage of Mr Trump's 6 January speech and the deadly rioting by some of his supporters.

"That's a high crime and misdemeanour," Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland said of the footage. "If that's not an impeachable offence, then there's no such thing."

Lawyers for the former president argued it was unconstitutional to put a former president through the process at all and accused Democrats of being politically motivated.

Donald Trump's lawyers stole the show at the opening of his impeachment trial at the US Senate - but not in a way that will have pleased the former president.

Indeed Mr Trump was unhappy, according to media reports, with the performance of Bruce Castor, whose 48-minute address appeared to have very little substantive content.

Mr Castor's presentation contrasted sharply with a dramatic video montage presented by impeachment managers - the Democrats tasked with leading the prosecution. The clip showed Mr Trump telling supporters to "fight like hell" before they stormed the US Capitol last month.

And the defence was roundly criticised by Republican allies and critics of Mr Trump.

Alan Dershowitz, who defended Mr Trump in his first impeachment trial last year, said he could not understand what Mr Castor had been hoping to achieve.

"There is no argument. I have no idea what he's doing. I have no idea why he's saying what he's saying," the high-profile lawyer told conservative TV channel Newsmax.

He argued that Mr Trump's speech ahead of the Capitol riot should be protected by the First Amendment, which refers to freedom of speech, and warned that partisan impeachments would otherwise become commonplace.

"We can't possibly be suggesting that we punish people for political speech," he said.

Mr Castor said impeachment was unnecessary because Mr Trump could not be removed from office as a result of the trial as he was no longer president. However, if convicted, Mr Trump could also be barred from holding federal office again.

"President Trump no longer is in office. The object of the Constitution has been achieved. He was removed by the voters," Mr Castor said, contradicting Mr Trump's repeated but unsubstantiated assertion that he had been the victim of electoral fraud.

Mr Castor also talked about loving one's elected representatives, offered his own personal memories of working in the US Capitol building - "I got lost then and I still do" - and other nuggets including a description of the state of Nebraska as a "judicial thinking place".

Some of the randomness appeared to find explanation when Mr Castor confirmed the impact of the prosecution video, saying it had forced the defence team to switch strategy at the eleventh hour.

"We changed what we were going to do on account that we thought the House impeachment managers' presentation was well done," he said.

He finished by arguing that the US justice department would have grounds to arrest Mr Trump if the impeachment allegations against him were true.

"A high crime is a felony, and a misdemeanour is a misdemeanour. After he's out of office, you go and arrest him," Mr Castor said. "The Department of Justice does know what to do with such people. And so far, I haven't seen any activity in that direction."

Reaction was swift and brutal, with Mr Castor and Mr Schoen compared variously to the Three Stooges and the incompetent attorney played by Joe Pesci in the comedy My Cousin Vinny.

"Castor and Schoen must be the most incompetent legal representation of any modern president, incumbent or otherwise," tweeted Michael Beschloss, a historian of the presidency. "By the time Castor and Schoen are finished, the House will probably demand to impeach (Trump) a third time."

Staunch Trump ally Ted Cruz said Mr Castor and Mr Schoen had not done "the most effective job".

Senator John Cornyn, who voted to dismiss the trial, said Mr Castor "just rambled on and on and didn't really address the constitutional argument".

"I've seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of arguments and that was not one of the finest I've seen," he said.

Meanwhile Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator who voted to go ahead with the trial, said the lawyers had done a "terrible job".

Longtime Trump critic Susan Collins said she was left "perplexed" because Mr Castor "did not seem to make any arguments at all, which was an unusual approach to take".

It could have been so much worse.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Vice President Mike Pence and his family as well as dozens of congressional staffers were just feet away from coming face-to-face with the belligerent pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last month, never-before-seen surveillance footage from the deadly attack reveals.

The Democratic House managers introduced the harrowing footage at Donald Trump’s unprecedented second impeachment trial on Wednesday, describing it as evidence of the horror the former president unleashed on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“We all know that awful day could have been so much worse,” California Rep. Eric Swalwell, one of the managers, said before playing some of the footage on a large screen in the very same Senate chamber that was overrun by Trump’s violent supporters just weeks ago.

The managers gave special credit to Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who played a key role in directing Romney and Pence to safety.

One surveillance video shows Goodman rushing toward Romney in a hallway and directing the Utah Republican to run back the way he came as he was unknowingly heading straight for the attackers, many of whom were armed with baseball bats and other weapons. Romney began running and was later able to make it to safety at an undisclosed location in the Capitol, the managers said.

Minutes after Romney was shepherded away, the mob emerged in the very hallway he had just stood in, security footage shows.

Pence, his wife and children could be seen in separate security footage running down a flight of stairs as Goodman directed the mob away from him.

Schumer, the Senate’s majority leader and most powerful member, was spotted on another security camera walking with staffers to be evacuated after the rioters had breached the building.

But the New York Democrat was then seen turning around to run back the same direction he came from after they heard the mob approaching. A couple of Capitol Police officer then slammed a door shut behind Schumer and pressed their bodies against it as they prepared to face off with attackers.

Earlier in Wednesday’s session, the managers hammered home the point that the Capitol attack was the culmination of Trump’s months-long attempt to overturn President Biden’s election by pushing false claims about fraud.

Rick Scott, a Republican senator of Florida, told reporters the impeachment trial was a “complete waste of time”.

After viewing explicit videos of the attack, Scott said: “I’m disgusted that, you know, people think that they can do things like that and get away with it. I hope everybody that came into the Capitol and did the wrong thing gets prosecuted to the full extent of law.”

But, he did not hold Trump culpable. “I wish the president had said something faster when they broke into it, but, you know, I’ve watched what he said. He’s never said when somebody should break in,” Scott said.

The impeachment manager’s presentation now is a rebuttal to comments like the ones Scott made to reporters.

The capital building would have been stormed by those people whether he said anything or not because of Biden winning the election. So I don't think he is guilty of inciting something that way going to happen anyway. I mean him telling people to go to the capital building and fight was him preaching to the choir basically. I don't think he incited the riot but made a suggestion to them, of what they were already going to do anyway.

When Trump told them to storm the capital building, they were already thinking "No S#$T Trump, we were already going to". So I don't think he will be found guilty therefore of an insurrection.

The capital building would have been stormed by those people whether he said anything or not because of Biden winning the election. So I don't think he is guilty of inciting something that way going to happen anyway. I mean him telling people to go to the capital building and fight was him preaching to the choir basically. I don't think he incited the riot but made a suggestion to them, of what they were already going to do anyway.

When Trump told them to storm the capital building, they were already thinking "No S#$T Trump, we were already going to". So I don't think he will be found guilty therefore of an insurrection.

Insiders at Mar-a-lago say Trump was hysterically screaming at the TV screen while watching his lawyers babble senselessly, and read poetry.

The rioters who had been arrested all say they had been called on by Trump to show up at DC, then were told by him to attack the capitol.

Yeah but you can't believe rioters, who storm a building to be credible witnesses though. If they would storm a government building and terrorize like that, then their word is not credible. They very well could be placing blame on Trump since usually when people are arrested for crimes, they often like to blame it on being someone else's fault or influence. It's enough to raise reasonable doubt in what they say I think.

Yeah but you can't believe rioters, who storm a building to be credible witnesses though. If they would storm a government building and terrorize like that, then their word is not credible. They very well could be placing blame on Trump since usually when people are arrested for crimes, they often like to blame it on being someone else's fault or influence. It's enough to raise reasonable doubt in what they say I think.

Oh okay, I see. When did he make this promise to them, or did he televise the promise to get it across?

The capital building would have been stormed by those people whether he said anything or not because of Biden winning the election. So I don't think he is guilty of inciting something that way going to happen anyway. I mean him telling people to go to the capital building and fight was him preaching to the choir basically. I don't think he incited the riot but made a suggestion to them, of what they were already going to do anyway.

When Trump told them to storm the capital building, they were already thinking "No S#$T Trump, we were already going to". So I don't think he will be found guilty therefore of an insurrection.