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A guide to President Trump’s second impeachment trial

15 January 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Here’s your guide to President Trump’s second impeachment trial. Remember, his first began almost exactly a year ago, on Jan. 16, 2020.

The state of play: Assuming the House sends the article of impeachment to the Senate on or before Jan. 19 (the day the Senate returns from recess):

  • Once the Senate’s impeachment rules are launched, the secretary of the Senate will alert the House that the Senate is ready to receive its impeachment managers, either immediately or at a mutually agreed time.
  • The managers will then walk the article and the resolution appointing them to the Senate and read the article aloud.
  • The Senate will then notify Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and invite him to preside.

Jan. 20 (Inauguration Day):

  • Senate Impeachment Rule III provides that, once the article is exhibited by the managers, “The Senate shall, at 1 o’clock afternoon of the day (Sundays excepted) … or sooner if ordered by the Senate, proceed to the consideration" of the article.
  • During both Trump and President Clinton’s trials, the Senate unanimously agreed the trial would begin immediately after the House managers exhibited the articles, rather than the next day.
  • That could mean Trump’s impeachment trial would begin at 1 p.m. on Jan. 20 — one hour after Joe Biden is sworn in to replace him.
  • On the day and time of the trial, the chief justice will be sworn in by the president pro tempore of the Senate to serve as the presiding officer.
  • The chief justice then swears in the senators as members of the Court of Impeachment. If the chief justice does not preside, the president pro tempore would perform the function.
  • The Senate then summons the person who is being impeached — by this point, former President Trump — to appear before the body, and to file an answer to the articles of impeachment.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.