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Sen. Rand Paul: Trump’s impeachment trial is unconstitutional

Friday, 29 January 2021 5:26 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 29 January 2021 5:26 PM ]

US Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, arrives for the weekly Senate Republican lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, November 10, 2020. (AFP photo)

Republican US Senator Rand Paul has struck a severe blow to Democrats’ hopes of convicting former President Donald Trump on a House-passed article of impeachment in the upcoming trial in the Senate.

Paul stated on Thursday that the hearing that Chief Justice John Roberts would not preside over the impeachment trial “crystalized” the Republican argument that the proceedings are unconstitutional.

Paul this week used a procedural tactic to stall the impeachment process when 45 Republican senators voted in favor of his motion that said Trump’s impeachment trial of Trump is unconstitutional since he’s no longer the US president.

“We’ve long been aware that a constitutional motion is a privileged motion and that it could happen. We discussed it within our office,” Senator Paul told The Hill in an interview on Thursday.

“What really crystalized it for me is that about a week ago we were on a Republican conference call and they said the chief justice wasn’t coming,” he added.

“Myself and others were like, ‘Oh my goodness, the chief justice is not coming. That’s a huge, huge signal that there’s something wrong with this proceeding,’” Paul said, recounting a Senate GOP conference call on January 21.

The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives introduced an article of impeachment last week to the Senate that charges Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors for whipping up an insurrection and disrupting the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump is the only US president who has been impeached twice by the House and will be the first to face trial after leaving the White House.

Conviction in the Senate could result in a vote to bar him from running for office again, but the conviction is unlikely as only a few Republican senators may vote for impeachment, despite lingering anger among some Republicans over his recent actions.

Bolton: Trump's impeachment trial is ‘badly conceived, poorly executed’

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton has said that a “badly conceived, poorly executed” impeachment trial of Donald Trump will fail convict him.

A two-thirds majority vote would be required for his conviction which would require at least 17 Republican votes if every Democrat votes to convict Trump.

The US House impeached Trump over his role for the invasion on the Capitol on January 6 that left five people dead, including a member of law enforcement.

Trump was blamed for inciting an insurrection when the lawmakers were busy certifying the victory of Joe Biden in the disputed 2020 presidential election. Trump believes Biden did not win the election fairly, and that the vote was rigged to deprive him of second term.

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