Donald Trump was recently impeached again on the charge of inciting the insurrection at the Capitol in January. His second impeachment trial will occur today, February 9th. Two new trial lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce Castor Jr., will represent Trump because just a week before this trial, all of his impeachment lawyers quit. 

Part of the reason why they quit is because of disagreements over how to prepare Trump’s defense. His lawyers wanted to focus on how impeaching a former president is unconstitutional, while Trump wanted them to argue there was election fraud.

“I think they 100% knew it was indefensible, in the sense that even the Supreme Court decided not even to take up one of the suits filed by the Trump campaign over claims of voter fraud in four states. It was a completely futile attempt to overturn the results of the election, one that was not even supported by the conservative majority supreme court, and I believe his lawyers came to terms with that reality,” said president of AV’s Model Congress club Sri Kondapalli (‘21).

To successfully impeach him, ⅔ of the Senate or 67 Senators need to vote to convict Trump. That means 17 Republican Senators need to side with Democrats and vote against him.

“I think [Trump getting convicted] has 0% likelihood of occurring—only around 3 – 5 Republicans in the Senate have even suggested that Trump’s actions were worthy of conviction. I don’t think there will be any implications as a result of the trial, like the last impeachment trial, as ultimately Democrats’ objectives as they relate to conviction will not occur, just like 2 years ago,” said Kondapalli.

Conversely, many people believe Trump should not be impeached, especially because he is no longer our president.

“The argument that lawyers for [Trump] is making is not just because he is a private citizen. Another reason that they are arguing against the impeachment is because there was no evidence, no investigation, and no witnesses who testified under oath. This is the normal procedure for an impeachment process, and those steps have not occurred,” said Lionel Liu (‘22), a conservative. 

If Trump is convicted in the Senate, he could be disqualified from running for President again. He could also lose benefits given to former Presidents, like Secret Service and pensions. Also, impeached Presidents cannot be pardoned. However, if he is acquitted, he will retain all of these benefits, and could run for public office again.