Impeachment Trial Diary - Day 1

Click here for an article at Lawfare by Benjamin Wittes entitled "Impeachment Trial Diary: Daily Thoughts on the Senate's Proceedings."

It was riveting initially, because the House impeachment managers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) and with an especially impressive performance by Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), put on an exceptional presentation—one that skillfully used the jurisdictional dispute at issue to talk about the magnitude of Trump’s wrongdoing and the resulting stakes in the Senate trial. And it was riveting later in the afternoon because the former president’s legal team put on a true train-wreck of an argument, one that highlighted both the rather obvious lack of preparation of a team that had only been on the job for a few days and the relative weakness of that team’s substantive position.