The U.S. Senate voted on Feb. 9 to authorize the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, overruling an argument by the defense alleging the Senate doesn’t have jurisdiction to try Trump because he’s now a private citizen.
Over the course of four hours, House impeachment managers and Trump’s attorneys presented their arguments for and against the constitutionality of the trial. In the end, 44 Republican senators voted in favor of dropping the trial because it’s illegitimate, seven votes short of the majority needed to stop the proceedings at the gate.
