1/10. Why does Senator McConnell talk about how he will run the impeachment trial, and why do we listen? He has zero constitutional authority to decide its shape.
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2/10. John Roberts is in charge of the impeachment trial. The Constitution clearly states that if the president is impeached, the chief justice presides.
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3/10. Constitution: “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside”
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4/10. The impeachment trial is a trial and the senators are all sworn jurors. No special role is foreseen in the Constitution for any specific senator.
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5/10. When you are a juror, you set aside your normal concerns and swear to be impartial. If you are a juror your obligation is to try a case, not advance your interests. The same is true of senators acting as jurors.
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6/10. Senators in an impeachment trial therefore have an exclusively legal responsibility, just as any citizen serving as a juror in a trial would.
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7/10. If we treat the impeachment trial as anything but a trial, we disregard the Constitution and endanger the rule of law and the Republic.
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8/10. If senators say that they regard an impeachment trial as political rather than legal, they have disqualified themselves as jurors.
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9/10. If senators reveal how they will vote before the impeachment trial has taken place, they have disqualified themselves as jurors.
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10/10. Senator McConnell has no constitutional authority to lead an impeachment trial. His constitutional responsibility is to serve as a juror. From that he has disqualified himself.
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The power to ‘try’ is why the senate and practically then the senate leader can set the rules. There’s a conflict in the text: what does try and what does preside mean? Does who presides or try set the rules? Does preside only mean conduct the trial with rules set by the triar?
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For one thing: preside is a judicial office. As in "the presiding judge ruled . . .." That would be, then, by the Constitution, the Chief Justice and no other.
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True in a Constitutional sense. But the Senate set the ground rules for the previous impeachments. If Chief Justice Roberts were to walk in and say “Do this,” it could very well cause a Constitutional crisis. Note the “if.” Roberts May do no such thing.
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