Explainer: How Trump's impeachment trial will differ from a criminal one
Send a link to a friend
[January 21, 2020]
By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate's
impeachment trial of President Donald Trump will begin in earnest on
Tuesday, when senators may begin hearing opening statements on why he
should be removed from office.
While 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 investigation, the House of Representatives 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
protections similar to those that defendants receive in criminal cases,
such as the right to have a lawyer present and request witness
testimony. But legal experts say impeachment trials were never intended
to be conducted like criminal cases.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jan/21/images/ads/current/atlantabank_lda_LUAL_2019.png)
In a 1974 report, the House Judiciary Committee said impeachment was a
remedial process, rather than a 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?
Jurors in criminal cases are required to be fair and 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.
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.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/012120pics/news_s35.jpg)
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.,
January 14, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
Such evidentiary rules do not apply to impeachment.
Republican lawmakers have criticized the case against Trump as a
political exercise based on hearsay, saying it was based on
testimony from current and former administration officials who never
spoke directly to Trump and therefore lack credibility.
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who is overseeing the proceedings,
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. But 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, he 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 Andy Sullivan and Leslie Adler)
[© 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.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jan/21/images/ads/current/graue_preowned012020.png) |