Explainer: How Trump's impeachment trial would differ from a criminal
one
Send a link to a friend
[January 02, 2020]
By Jan Wolfe
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on
Dec. 19 became the third U.S. president to be impeached when the
Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted to charge him with
abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Republican-controlled
Senate is due to weigh these charges in a trial in January.
In the unlikely event he is found guilty, Trump would be removed from
office.
Trump and his Republican allies have attacked the impeachment effort as
illegitimate, invoking concepts like "due process" and "hearsay" that
are commonly associated with criminal cases.
While U.S. senators will serve as jurors, legal experts say an
impeachment trial will look fundamentally different from a U.S. criminal
proceeding. Here are the reasons why.
HOW DOES AN IMPEACHMENT TRIAL WORK?
In an impeachment probe, the House functions like a prosecutor's office.
If the chamber charges a president with committing impeachable offenses,
a group of House members presents evidence of wrongdoing during a trial
before the Senate, which acts as a jury in deciding whether the
president should be removed from office.
Historically, presidents facing impeachment trials have been granted
some protections like what defendants receive in criminal cases, such as
the right to have a lawyer present and request witness testimony. But
legal experts say impeachment proceedings were never intended to be
conducted like criminal cases.
In a 1974 report, the House Judiciary Committee said impeachment was a
remedial process, rather than punitive one.
"Impeachment and the criminal law serve fundamentally different
purposes," the report stated. "The purpose of impeachment is not
personal punishment; its function is primarily to maintain
constitutional government."
DO SENATORS NEED TO BE IMPARTIAL?
U.S. judges are required to ensure that jurors are fair and do not
prejudge a case.
Similarly, under the U.S. Constitution and Senate rules, senators take
an oath and swear they will be impartial.
But as a practical matter, senators can declare their allegiance before
trial and cannot be disqualified for bias, said Frank Bowman, an
impeachment scholar at the University of Missouri School of Law.
"You can imagine what a mess the trial would be if disqualification
motions would be entertained. Everybody would be moving to disqualify
everybody, and then the question would be what body decides such a
motion," Bowman said.
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump participates in a video teleconference with
members of the U.S. military at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm
Beach, Florida, U.S., December 24, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis
IS HEARSAY EVIDENCE ALLOWED?
U.S. law restricts what evidence is admissible in a criminal case.
The complex rules limit the use of "hearsay," or secondhand
information.
Such evidentiary rules do not apply to impeachment.
Republican lawmakers have criticized the House's impeachment probe
as a political exercise based on hearsay. They say witnesses like
former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who testified
at House hearings, never spoke directly to Trump and therefore lack
credibility.
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts could conceivably block evidence
from being used in the Senate trial on the grounds that it is
irrelevant or hearsay, but such a determination could be overturned
by a majority vote of the Senate, legal experts said.
Roberts does not want to be seen as partisan, so he will likely
"tread very carefully" and let senators make important decisions,
Bowman said.
WHAT IS THE STANDARD OF PROOF?
Jurors in criminal cases are instructed not to convict a defendant
unless there is proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
There is no formal standard of proof in impeachment proceedings,
said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los
Angeles.
"One would think there is an answer to this basic procedural
question, but there is not," Levinson said.
Jurors in criminal cases are asked to make factual determinations,
Bowman said. Senators, on the other hand, are making both factual
determinations and political judgments, making it difficult to set a
standard of proof, Bowman said.
HOW MANY SENATORS MUST VOTE TO CONVICT?
Under the U.S. Constitution, a two-thirds vote of the Senate is
required to convict the president. That differs from most criminal
trials, where juries must reach a unanimous verdict.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Andy Sullivan
and Alistair Bell)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |