As the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump got underway on Tuesday afternoon, the former President decided to spend the entire week watching events unfold on TV.

“A notable difference from Trump’s first impeachment trial will be the expected silence from the accused. During his first impeachment trial, Trump kept up a running commentary on Twitter, at one point posting 142 tweets in a single day as prosecutors laid out their case against him. Americans will be deprived of Trump’s analysis this time round, after he was banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube following the Capitol assault,” The Guardian reports.

A 56-44 vote at the end of the arguments determined the trial to be constitutional — so further proceedings can now go ahead. 6 Republicans broke rank with their party to vote in favour of the constitutionality of the trial. Forty-five Republican senators had already signed on to a motion before the trial started arguing that the proceeding is unconstitutional. Eventually, one more Republican senator defected at the end of Day One of the trials.

Who presides over the trial?

Trump’s first impeachment was presided over by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, according to US Constitution. However, as this trial is of former president, the longest-serving Democratic senator, Patrick Leahy, who holds the title of president pro tempore – will preside. It will be prosecuted by a team of nine impeachment managers from the House, and the whole Senate was sworn in as the jury on 26 January.

What could happen after the trial?

Since Mr. Trump is no longer in office, he can’t be removed from it which is what a conviction would normally lead to. Instead, in this unusual case, there could be another separate vote to bar him from running for office again. That would require a simple majority vote and would prevent him from running for President in 2024 which he has indicated he might want to do.

But even in the unlikely event that he is convicted and barred from running for federal office again, Mr. Trump could still continue to remain a force in American politics by endorsing candidates, holding rallies or becoming a conservative media personality.

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A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the “Save America Rally” on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House.

But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. Other staff scheduled to be “on-site” during the demonstration have close ties to the White House.

Since the siege, several of them have scrambled to distance themselves from the rally.

The riot at the Capitol, incited by Trump’s comments before and during his speech at the Ellipse, has led to a reckoning unprecedented in American history. The president told the crowd to march to the Capitol and that “you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

A week after the rally, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice. But the political and legal fallout may stretch well beyond Trump, who will exit the White House on Wednesday before Democrat Joe Biden takes the oath of office. Trump had refused for nearly two months to accept his loss in the 2020 election to the former vice president.

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“I believe this was the right decision for Twitter,” Dorsey said in a series of tweets. “We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety. Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all.”

That said, having to ban an account has real and significant ramifications. While there are clear and obvious exceptions, I feel a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation. And a time for us to reflect on our operations and the environment around us.

— jack (@jack) January 14, 2021

On January 8, Twitter suspended Trump’s account permanently after thousands of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, and clashed with the police. The microblogging website had first temporarily suspended Donald Trump’s account later imposed the permanent ban, citing, “risk of further incitement of violence”. Apart from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have also blocked Trump’s accounts for policy violations.

In his tweets, Dorsey said he took no pride in the ban. “ After a clear warning we’d take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter,” he wrote.

The Twitter CEO acknowledged that the ban could have “significant ramifications”. Dorsey also said that he felt the decision to suspend the account was a failure on the company’s part to promote a healthy conversation.

“Having to take these actions to fragment the public conversation,” he said. “They divide us. They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. And sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation.”

Dorsey said that internet companies, including Twitter, should look at inconsistencies in their policy and how their service can incentivise distraction and harm. “Yes, we need more transparency in our moderation operations,” he said. ‘All this can’t erode a free and open global internet.”

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