Trump Impeachment Process: Who Are the Key Players?

The US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time over his alleged role in the January 6 deadly attack on the Capitol Building.

And 232 deputies, including 10 Republicans, approved his dismissal on charges of “incitement to insurrection.”

Democrats led the effort to charge Mr. Trump for encouraging the riots.

But some Republicans have backed calls for accountability.

So, who are these key players, and what do we know about them?

When the indictment charges go to the Senate for trial, the prosecution case will be brought by a team of lawmakers led by Mr. Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland since 2017 and a former professor of constitutional law.

Mr Trump’s trial marks the continuation of a very difficult start to 2021 for Raskin, who is 58.

The son of Congressman, 25-year-old Tommy Plum Ruskin, committed suicide on New Year’s Eve and was buried in early January.

The day after the funeral, Ruskin found himself hanging out with his colleagues, shielded from a violent crowd that had sprung up on the Capitol as lawmakers had gathered to ratify the November presidential election result.

On the day of the attack, Ruskin helped draft an article to impeach President Trump.

He talks to the Washington PostRuskin said his son, who was studying law at Harvard, would have called violence last week “the worst form of crime against democracy.”

Mr. Ruskin said, “Tommy Ruskin, his love, values ​​and passion are what kept me going.”

In total, nine Democrats, including Mr. Ruskin, have been named managers of accountability. One of them is Rep. Madeleine Dean, from Pennsylvania, who is one of three women on the team.

Mrs. Dean began her career in law, opening her own three-woman office in Pennsylvania before teaching English at a university.

After being active in state politics for decades, she was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018, using her seat to defend women’s reproductive rights and reform the gun law and health care for all, among other issues.

In an interview with MSNBCMs. Dean, 68, said she would prefer a “speedy trial” in the Senate if Mr. Trump is impeached.

It is not about politics. This is about protecting our constitution, our rule of law, ”said Ms. Dean.

As speaker of the House of Representatives, Pelosi has been in the spotlight since the Capitol riots.

Pelosi leads the House Democrats in Congress, so the 80-year-old was a major influence over the decision to submit an article to impeach Trump.

Pelosi pushed the House of Representatives to push ahead with impeachment measures after former Vice President Mike Pence did not invoke constitutional powers to remove Trump, then president.

Pence said at the time that he believed such a move would go against the country’s interests.

“This president is guilty of inciting insubordination. He has to pay the price for it,” Pelosi said.

Mr. McConnell, a 78-year-old Republican senator from Kentucky, is a candidate for the Senate.

The former majority leader in the upper room remains the man at the head of the Republican Rally in the upper room.

Called the “Grim Reaper,” McConnell was a thorn in former President Barack Obama’s side, often maneuvering to frustrate his legislative agenda and judicial appointments.

He was also the driving force behind Mr Trump’s acquittal in his first impeachment trial in 2019.

In the past few weeks as president of the Senate, Mr. McConnell has delayed Mr. Trump’s trial until after the former president leaves office, saying there is no time for a “fair or serious trial” before Biden is inaugurated.

McConnell has not commented publicly on whether he supports the conviction or acquittal of Trump, but he did send some mixed messages.

Although he has spent the past four years in the corner of the president, the minority leader said that the rioters had been “provoked” by Mr. Trump and that he planned to hear both sides of the trial.

But later in January, he also joined a majority of Republican senators to vote in favor of a motion to scrap the impeachment issue as unconstitutional now that Trump is no longer in the White House.

McConnell may not have the final say on all impeachment measures, but since the Democrats need the support of Republicans to convict Trump with the required two-thirds majority, he still has a major role to play in upcoming proceedings.

Just over a week before the trial, Trump broke off from his legal team, including attorneys Butch Powers and Deborah Barbier.

They were soon replaced by David Schwen, the trial attorney, and Bruce Castor, the former county attorney general, who would lead the defense of the former president.

In a statement, the two attorneys said they did not believe the pressure to impeach Trump was constitutional.

“The strength of our constitution is on the verge of being tested, as never before in our history,” added Mr. Castor.

“It is a strong and flexible document. A document written throughout the ages, it will triumph over partisanship again and always.”

Mr. Schwen previously represented Roger Stone, a former Trump advisor. Stone received a presidential pardon in December.

The attorney has also made headlines in the past for meeting with Geoffrey Epstein in his final days to discuss possible acting, and for saying later that he did not believe the death of the American financier and sex offender was a suicide.

Mr. Castor, the former Pennsylvania District Attorney, is known for his refusal to sue Bill Cosby on a sexual assault charge in 2005. The comedian was ultimately convicted of three counts of sexual assault in the 2018 retrial of his case.

Cheney, 54, is the third-highest-ranked Republican leader in the House of Representatives. As the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, she has a good reputation in the party.

So, its support for accountability is especially important.

Of the riots in the Capitol, Mrs. Cheney said that Mr. Trump “summoned this mob, gathered the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”

“There has never been any greater betrayal by the President of the United States of his office and the swearing in of the Constitution,” said the representative of Wyoming.

However, in a final test to support the conviction on impeachment charges that Mr Trump had instigated his supporters to launch a revolt at the U.S. Capitol, 45 of the 50 Republicans voted in the Senate last week to consider stopping the trial before it began.

Cheney survived a Republican vote in the House of Representatives – 145-61 – to remove her from her leadership post after a dispute with other Republican lawmakers last month to remove the former president.

It also now faces a major contender for its seat in Congress in Wyoming after the vote to impeach Trump.

Banning Trump from running again is one of the rationales that might push some Republicans to impeach the president.

That reasoning may be appealing to Republican senators like Sassy, ​​who is seen as a potential contender for the presidency in 2024.

He was elected to the Senate in 2014, and the 48-year-old has been a vocal critic of Trump.

Sassi was fiercely opposed to the Republican bid – encouraged by Trump – to nullify the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Congress.

On the question of accountability, Mr. Sassi said he would “definitely consider any articles they might bring” in the House of Representatives.

A two-thirds majority will be required to convict Trump in the Senate, which means that at least 17 Republicans – including Mr. Sassi – will have to vote for her.

At Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020, Chief Justice John Roberts presided over the proceedings.

This time, he declined to participate, handing the job over to the 80-year-old Vermont Democrat, who will take the hammer at its second impeachment trial.

Mr. Leahy was first elected to the Senate in 1974 and is the longest-serving Representative in the Supreme Council.

He will assume office as interim president of the Senate – a constitutional officer, responsible for presiding over the Senate in the absence of the vice president.

He said in a statement that “the interim president performs an additional special oath to achieve fair justice in accordance with the constitution and laws” when presiding over the impeachment trial.

“It’s an oath that I take extraordinarily seriously.”