A divided US Senate has voted largely along party lines to move ahead with Donald Trump's impeachment trial on a charge of inciting the deadly assault on the Capitol, but conviction appears unlikely barring a major shift among Republicans.
The Senate voted 56-44 to proceed to the first-ever trial of a former president on Tuesday, rejecting his defence lawyers' argument that Mr Trump was beyond the reach of the Senate after having left the White House on 20 January.
Democrats hope to disqualify Mr Trump from ever again holding public office, but Tuesday's outcome suggested they face long odds. Only six Republican senators joined Democrats to vote in favour of allowing the trial to take place, far short of the 17 needed to secure a conviction.
Convicting Mr Trump would require a two-thirds majority in the 50-50 Senate.
In this image from video, the vote total on the question of the constitutionality of the impeachment trial is displayed in the Senate on 9 February. Source: Senate Television via AAP
The vote capped a dramatic day in the Senate chamber. Democratic lawmakers serving as prosecutors opened the trial with a graphic video interspersing images of the 6 January Capitol violence with clips of Mr Trump's incendiary speech to a crowd of supporters moments earlier urging them to "fight like hell" to overturn his 3 November election defeat.
Senators, serving as jurors, watched as screens showed Mr Trump's followers throwing down barriers and hitting police officers at the Capitol. The video included the moment when police guarding the House of Representatives chamber fatally shot protester Ashli Babbitt, one of five people including a police officer who died in the rampage.
The mob attacked police, sent lawmakers scrambling for safety and interrupted the formal congressional certification of President Joe Biden's victory after Mr Trump had spent two months challenging the election results based on false claims of widespread voting fraud.
"If that's not an impeachment offence, then there is no such thing," Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, who led a team of nine House members prosecuting the case, told the assembled senators after showing the video.
He wept as he recounted how relatives he brought to the Capitol that day to witness the election certification had to shelter in an office near the House floor, saying: "They thought they were going to die."
In contrast to the Democrats' emotional presentation, Mr Trump's lawyers attacked the process, arguing that the proceeding was an unconstitutional, partisan effort to close off Mr Trump's political future even after he had already departed the White House.
"What they really want to accomplish here in the name of the Constitution is to bar Donald Trump from ever running for political office again, but this is an affront to the Constitution no matter who they target today," David Schoen, one of Mr Trump's lawyers, told senators.
He denounced the "insatiable lust for impeachment" among Democrats before airing his own video, which stitched together clips of various Democratic lawmakers calling for Mr Trump's impeachment going back to 2017.
Outside, thousands of National Guard troops deployed in the aftermath of the debacle continue to patrol, while hastily thrown up fences barricade the area from ordinary Americans - visible proof that the aftershocks of the Trump era continue to rumble.
Members of the national guard patrol the area outside of the US Capitol during the impeachment trial of Donald Trump in Washington on 9 February. Source: AP via AAP
House managers' case 'compelling, cogent'
Mr Trump, who was impeached by the Democratic-led House on 13 January, is only the third president in US history to be impeached, and the only one to be impeached twice.
His defence argued he was exercising his right to free speech under the Constitution's First Amendment when he addressed supporters before the Capitol attack.
Bruce Castor, one of Mr Trump's lawyers, said the storming of the Capitol by hundreds of people "should be denounced in the most vigorous terms," but argued that "a small group of criminals," not Mr Trump, were responsible for the violence.
He said the Senate had no jurisdiction to try Mr Trump once he had left office and warned that the impeachment threatened to "tear this country apart."
Most legal experts have said it is constitutional to have an impeachment trial after an official has left office.
"Presidents can't inflame insurrection in their final weeks and then walk away like nothing happened. And yet that is the rule that President Trump asks you to adopt," Democratic Representative Joe Neguse told the senators.
Most of the senators at the trial were present in the Capitol on 6 January, when many lawmakers said they feared for their own safety.
Several Republican senators said they found Mr Trump's defence, particularly Mr Castor's argument, disjointed and unclear.
"The House managers made a compelling, cogent case. And the president's team did not," said Republican Senator Bill Cassidy.
Mr Cassidy had voted to block the trial on constitutional grounds last month, a Republican effort that failed 55-45. He was the only Republican to switch sides on Tuesday.
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard University law professor emeritus who served as one of Mr Trump's lawyers during his first impeachment, also said he found Mr Castor's presentation ineffective. He said he had declined an invitation to defend Mr Trump again because he does not support Mr Trump's claims that the election was invalid.
"I don't believe it was fraudulent, and I didn't want to be part of any defence team that would even imply that," he said.
Watching the proceedings on TV at his Florida resort, Mr Trump was unhappy with Mr Castor's performance, said a person familiar with the situation.
The trial could provide clues on the Republican Party's direction following Mr Trump's tumultuous four-year presidency. Sharp divisions have emerged between Trump loyalists and those hoping to move the party in a new direction. Democrats for their part are concerned the trial could impede Mr Biden's ability to swiftly advance an ambitious legislative agenda.
But few Republican senators appear willing to break with Mr Trump.
Democrats hold 50 of the 100 Senate seats and Vice President Kamala Harris is able to cast a tie-breaking vote. But it would take a two-thirds majority for a conviction, meaning at least 17 Republican senators would have to join.
One year ago, the then-Republican-controlled Senate acquitted Mr Trump on charges of obstructing Congress and abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation into Mr Biden and his son Hunter in 2019.
Senator Josh Hawley, who helped lead the opposition in the Senate to the presidential election results, predicted that Tuesday's vote would ultimately reflect the chamber's final decision.
Billboard trucks are parked near the US Capitol during the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in Washington, on 9 February. Source: AP via AAP
"That's probably going to be the outcome, right there,"Mr Hawley told reporters.
It's not clear yet how long the trial will last but it will be shorter than the three-week marathon of Mr Trump's first impeachment and could end as soon as next week.
The main part of the trial will start Wednesday, with each side having 16 hours to present oral arguments.
Senators, who are the jurors, will then question the opposing legal teams.
A majority vote will be needed if either side wants to call witnesses. Mr Trump, however, has already refused an invitation to testify.
Joe Biden above the fray
Mr Biden, who succeeded Mr Trump on 20 January, is attempting to stay above the fray.
When asked on Tuesday about the trial, Mr Biden offered a short few words.
"Look, I told you before... I have a job," he said. "The Senate has their job and they are about to begin it and I am sure they are going to conduct themselves well.
"That's all I am going to say about impeachment."
If Mr Trump were convicted, the Senate would then hold a simple-majority vote on barring him from future public office.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with business leaders to discuss a coronavirus relief package at the White House on 9 February. Source: AP via AAP
But even if the impeachment trial ends in acquittal, calls to punish Mr Trump for his behaviour will likely continue, including possibly a push for a bipartisan vote of censure.
