US Senate votes 56-44 to proceed with second Trump trial

New York: Pushing aside an orchestrated effort by the former US President Donald Trumps' defense team, the 100-member Senate on Tuesday voted 56-44 to proceed with Trump's historic second impeachment trial.

The 56-44 vote was on the question of whether the Senate has jurisdiction to proceed with the trial. It came after a total of four hours of initial arguments by both sides.

The trial started at 1 pm Tuesday (11.30 pm in India).

The trial is unlikely to convict the 45th US president as such a verdict requires vote of 67 out of 100 senators of whom only 50 are Democrats.

Dominating Day One was a 13-minute patchwork of video clips of the January 6 insurrection. It began with Trump whipping up a crowd to march to the Capitol and ace fight like hell" against the election results and transitioned to visuals of Trump supporters smashing glass, breaking doors, slamming police officers and a woman getting shot.

Trump's defense team focused all its energy on the question of constitutionality, while Democrats pointed to the grisly videos and declared "If that's not an impeachable offense, then there's no such thing." Trump is the first US president to face impeachment charges after leaving office and the only one to be impeached twice.

Meanwhile, New York Times reported that one of the lead lawyers for Trump has asked to suspend the trial during Sabbath day - a day set aside for rest and worship, according to Jewish principle.

"I apologize for the inconvenience my request that impeachment proceedings not be conducted during the Jewish Sabbath undoubtedly will cause other people involved in the proceedings," Trump's lawyer David Schoen said in a letter to Senator Patrick J. Leahy - who as president pro tempore is presiding over the trial- and other Senators in the panel.

(Based on IANS feed)