https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/the-impeachment-trials-stacked-deck/
EXCERPTS:
Trump should receive a fair chance to present the facts and legal arguments of his defense.
A s the Senate launches its second impeachment trial of Donald Trump next week, its members must confront the deep unfairness of the proceedings.
The Senate rashly claimed jurisdiction over a former president, fumbled on the selection of a presiding judge, and ignored the constitutional — not political — standards that should prevail. Further, it has given Trump’s depleted legal team little time or means to present a full defense — the only guarantee that the American people will accept the verdict as fair. Trump’s lawyers will have to accept these unfair conditions, though might conceivably be able to appeal directly to the federal courts to stop a show trial (more on that later).
Nevertheless, the Senate has ignored the constitutional limits on its powers and refused to follow principles of fairness in the trial. As we have argued earlier, the constitutional text — read in light of the understanding held by the Framers — does not appear to permit the trial of executive officers after their terms have ended. If the Framers had wanted to provide for the Senate trial of an impeached former president, they could have said so explicitly, as did several state constitutions of the Founding period. Days ago, 45 senators supported proceeding with a losing motion by Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) to dismiss the impeachment on this constitutional ground alone.
But a Senate trial compounds this fundamental problem by placing Senator Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) in charge of the proceedings, rather than Chief Justice John Roberts. The Constitution states that the chief justice “shall” preside over the trial of the president. But Donald Trump is no longer the president. Roberts could not preside because no constitutional clause clearly provides for the trial of an ex-president.
