The Democratic House impeachment managers are preparing on Thursday to wrap up their case against former President Donald J. Trump as they move ahead quickly with the Senate trial.
The House managers presented for nearly eight hours on Wednesday, walking the jury — senators who were in the Capitol during the attack on Jan. 6 — through footage of the riot and of Mr. Trump’s speeches in the weeks leading up to it. Most of that has been publicly available and previously televised.
But parts of their presentation — like security camera footage of staff members sheltering in offices and radio chatter from Capitol Police officers — had not been released before. The timeline of events, though, and the majority of the content shown would have been familiar to most Americans who watched the assault as it unfolded.
The Trump Impeachment ›
What You Need to Know
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- A trial is being held to decide whether former President Donald J. Trump is guilty of inciting a deadly mob of his supporters when they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, violently breaching security measures and sending lawmakers into hiding as they met to certify President Biden’s victory.
- The House voted 232 to 197 to approve a single article of impeachment, accusing Mr. Trump of “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in his quest to overturn the election results. Ten Republicans joined the Democrats in voting to impeach him.
- To convict Mr. Trump, the Senate would need a two-thirds majority to be in agreement. This means at least 17 Republican senators would have to vote with Senate Democrats to convict.
- A conviction seems unlikely. Last month, only five Republicans in the Senate sided with Democrats in beating back a Republican attempt to dismiss the charges because Mr. Trump is no longer in office. Only 27 senators say they are undecided about whether to convict Mr. Trump.
- If the Senate convicts Mr. Trump, finding him guilty of “inciting violence against the government of the United States,” senators could then vote on whether to bar him from holding future office. That vote would only require a simple majority, and if it came down to party lines, Democrats would prevail with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote.
- If the Senate does not convict Mr. Trump, the former president could be eligible to run for public office once again. Public opinion surveys show that he remains by far the most popular national figure in the Republican Party.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers, who have yet to present their case, have dismissed the trial itself as unconstitutional. It is still unclear whether they will try at all to directly address the House prosecutors’ arguments.
The Senate will reconvene at noon Thursday.
What do House managers have left in store?
The Democrats prosecuting Mr. Trump went to great lengths on Wednesday to not only remind senators of the violence that occurred on Jan. 6, but to also link those scenes directly to statements he made.
Several senators said they came away feeling moved.
“They had a strong presentation put together in a way that I think makes it pretty compelling,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, told reporters after.
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the lead House manager, suggested that his team intended to open its presentation on Thursday with still more, and might continue with the flood of uncomfortable memories for much of its remaining allotted time, up to eight hours. It may also be that Mr. Raskin simply hopes to summarize arguments made on Wednesday before resting his case.
Either way, House managers are expected to present for several more hours.
Will Trump’s lawyers respond?
The remaining evidence that House managers outlined for the jury may be intended to pressure Mr. Trump’s lawyers into confronting the record. So far, his lawyers have sought to avoid arguing the case on its merits, saying the trial itself is in violation of the Constitution.
But the case presented by the managers has included numerous clips of Mr. Trump, in the weeks before the riot, in which he falsely claimed that the election was stolen from him and urged supporters to fight what he described as widespread voter fraud.
If House managers choose to spend most of the day on Thursday focused on Mr. Trump and his fiery messaging, however, it may add to pressure on his lawyers to mount a fuller defense in coming days.
If they do, the lawyers are widely expected to argue that the comments were simply opinions protected by the First Amendment, and that Mr. Trump was entitled to tell his supporters to fight in the name of election security or to express their own political views.
But the former president’s lawyers have made clear that they plan to move quickly. The timetable for the trial was already moved up after a member of Mr. Trump’s defense team, David I. Schoen, withdrew a request to pause the trial on Friday evening to observe Jewish Sabbath.
How can I follow the trial?
The New York Times will follow the developments with live updates and analysis throughout. Visit nytimes.com for coverage throughout the week.
