Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Democrats will present “new evidence” against former President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial that begins Tuesday.
At the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Schumer said the Democratic House impeachment managers “will present a very strong case” that Mr. Trump incited the riot on Jan. 6 in which five people died, including a Capitol Police officer.
“The evidence will be powerful,” Mr. Schumer said. “Some of it will be new. And I urge all my colleagues to pay careful attention to the evidence.”
He called on Republican senators, “despite the pressure on them, to pay very real attention to the evidence here, because it’s very, very serious.”
“A mob of white supremacists and insurrectionists and domestic terrorists falsely believed the election was stolen and tried to overthrow the government,” the New York Democrat said.
He said the trial will determine whether Mr. Trump was “the man chiefly responsible for feeding the mob.”
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Mr. Trump’s acquittal is virtually guaranteed because it’s highly unlikely that 17 Republicans will join all 50 Democrats in voting to convict him. The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote, or 67 senators, to convict.
Democrats also want to hold a vote on barring Mr. Trump from holding office again.
The first step in the trial will be a debate and vote on Tuesday on whether it’s constitutional to put a former president on trial. A majority vote is needed to proceed to the case against Mr. Trump, expected to begin on Wednesday.
The president’s lawyers say he did not incite the crowd that attacked the Capitol. They say the people who stormed the building should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
House impeachment managers argued in a legal brief Tuesday that the former president continues to refuse to take responsibility for the deadly riot on Jan. 6, arguing that “highlights the danger he continues to post to the Nation he betrayed.”
“To send a clear message to the Nation and to all future Presidents that efforts to undermine our democracy through violence will not be tolerated, the Senate should convict President Trump and disqualify him from ever holding office again,” House Democrats said in the brief, which was made public just before the trial began.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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