At the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump the House of Representatives a week voted to indict the Mr. Trump on charges of inciting the January 6 capitol riot. They did so just before he was set to leave office and make way for the new Biden Administration. The specific charge was “incitement of insurrection” with House Democrats blaming Trump’s unsubstantiated insistence that voter fraud had occurred and that the presidential election had been “stolen” with provoking a mob of angry supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol building. Joined with Democrats were ten additional Republicans that voted for impeachment, making the indictment bipartisan. This was a history making event, as no previous U.S. president had ever been twice indicted by Congress on impeachment charges.

The senate trial took place on February 9, twenty days after Trump left office, leading some to debate whether the act of impeachment was constitutional for a departed official.  In a vote of 55-45, the Senate voted that the impeachment trial was constitutionally valid.

Acting as prosecutors in the senate trial, eight House Democrats were managers in the case against Trump: Jamie Raskin of Maryland was lead manager, supported by Joaquin Castro of Texas, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, Diana DeGette of Colorado, Ted Lieu of California, Joe Neguse of Colorado, and Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands At Large. They made the claim that the former president had incited an insurrection on the basis of his persistent claims of voter fraud and the use of words that can be interpreted as inherently violent in nature, such as “fight”, used in one of his rallies on the day of the event.

The defense team for Trump rebuked the latter by providing multiple occasions in which politicians have used the term “fight” during rallies and other public forums of speech

The defense team successfully held off a conviction as a 2/3 vote (or 67 senators) had to agree that the former president was guilty of the crime for which he was indicted. A total of 57 (All democrats and independents, as well as 7 republicans) found Trump guilty, and 43 senators (all Republican) voted not guilty. Though the prosecutors failed to get the required 2/3 vote for conviction, it is of additional historic note that a majority of the senators thought the president was guilty.

Donald Trump stood as a president who was very divisive, but his trial showed something that is hard to come by in this day and age: bipartisanship. The future is unknown when it comes to Donald Trump’s political career. Whether he will run for public office again is up in the air. As the country lets the dust settle from the violence of January 6, the new administration will return to business as usual, and address any future issues that may arise from this event.