Sen. Leahy, not Supreme Court chief justice, expected to preside over impeachment trial

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Source: USA Today

House Democrats will carry today their article of impeachment against Donald Trump across the Capitol to the Senate. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Senate, is expected to preside over the trial, which will start Feb. 9.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/25/politics-live-updates-trump-impeachment-article-goes-senate/6698416002/

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/us/politics/patrick-leahy-trump-impeachment.html

Senator Patrick Leahy, the longest-serving Democrat, will preside over Trump’s impeachment trial.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Senate president pro tempore, is expected to preside over former President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial when it formally begins on Tuesday, assuming a role filled last year by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., aides and other officials said on Monday.

The Constitution states that the chief justice of the United States presides over any impeachment trial of the president or vice president. But it does not explicitly give guidance on who should oversee the proceeding for others, including former presidents, and it appeared that Chief Justice Roberts was uninterested in reprising a time consuming role that would insert him and the Supreme Court directly into the fractious political fight over Mr. Trump.

Mr. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, recently reclaimed the mantle of president pro tempore — the position reserved for the longest-serving member of the majority party — when Democrats took control of the Senate. Mr. Leahy, 80, has been in office since 1974.

The role was largely ceremonial in the first impeachment trial of Mr. Trump a year ago. But as the presiding officer, Mr. Leahy could issue rulings on key questions around the admissibility of evidence and whether a trial of a former president is even allowed under the Constitution.