And the overwhelming view of US constitutional lawyers is that the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, which opened yesterday, is perfectly legal. That battle was again fought in the opening shots of the hearing yesterday. Trump is charged with “incitement of insurrection” over the deadly assault on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6th. It is the second time he will have been sent for trial through House impeachment proceedings, a process that establishes merely a case to answer, and the second time, almost certainly, that he will escape conviction. But any exhortation to the Democrats to take on board such legal arguments, however persuasive, will ring hollow from those who have already demonstrated their determination to turn the trial into political theatre.

Source: The Irish Times February 10, 2021 00:00 UTC