Radio Recap – Countdown to Impeachment Trial: What You Need to Know

As we count down to the impeachment trial, we’re telling you what you need to know.

On today’s Jay Sekulow Live, we discussed next week’s impeachment trial and President Trump’s legal team.

The formalities are basically over at the United States Senate. The trial begins on Tuesday. Now the first part of the trial that you’ll see on television will be the actual rules debate. There will very likely be amendments to those rules offered. When those amendments are offered, that will be the first time that you will start seeing the legal teams: the seven House managers and the newly expanded legal team for President Trump. In my private capacity as an outside counsel, I am also part of President Trump’s legal team.

Each side, the House managers and the President’s legal team, gets an hour to argue for or against proposed amendments to the rules which will likely take up that first day on Tuesday. The debate over the amendments could even go a day and a half. The reason that this will start on Tuesday is that Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. After the rules are adopted, then we’ll know how long each day will go from start to finish.

ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett made the following point:

This rules package that will be put forward by Leader McConnell; that is the one that Speaker Pelosi wanted him to put out in advance. He has not done that. He preserved the authority of the United States Senate. Really no matter what it says, there are going to be amendments offered on a number of issues. I think the one that will get the most in the media is the question of witnesses. I think it’s important for our listeners to remember, that while they’re going to hear a lot of reporting about certain Senators that want to hear from witnesses, all of those Senators have said that they think the proper way to proceed is the same way that we did in the case of the Clinton impeachment. There will not be an agreement at the beginning as far as witnesses go.

We played reporting from Fox News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts on the show today, announcing President Trump’s legal team:

The President’s legal team has been finalized, and here is a look at the seven people who will be arguing on behalf of the President, and they will mirror the seven House managers named by Nancy Pelosi earlier this week. Leading it off, the team is Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel. Jay Sekulow, the President’s outside attorney will also be playing a critical role. Ken Starr, who was involved in the Monica Lewinsky report that led to the impeachment of President Clinton. Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law professor who voted for Hillary Clinton and opposed the impeachment of Bill Clinton, he says that he’s going to be arguing on behalf of the Constitution for the President. Robert Ray, the former White Water prosecutor, the former Attorney General of Florida, Pam Bondi, and Jane Raskin, who was one of the President’s key outside attorneys in the Mueller Investigation. Jay Sekulow’s son Jordan will assist his father. He is the Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice.

You can listen to the entire episode with our exclusive analysis here.