The Impeachment of the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, formally begins today. With the Articles of Impeachment brought to the Senate last week, trial briefs brought in over the weekend, and the Senate rules for it brought out this morning at long last to be voted upon, the session begins today at 1 pm ET.

The schedule currently looks as though there will be four days of presentations, two days for each side, scheduled for 24 hours each side / 12 hours per day. The sessions do not begin until 1 pm ET as Chief Justice Roberts has ongoing Supreme Court Sessions during the morning period that cannot be moved.

The senate will be hearing presentations and possibly hearings and new evidence, depending on how voting goes after the main presentations, regarding two Articles of Impeachment:

• Article I, “Abuse of Power,” accuses Trump of pressuring the Ukrainian government into announcing an investigation into the Bidens by withholding both a White House meeting and military aid.
• Article II, “Obstruction of Congress,” accuses Trump of trying to impede the impeachment inquiry by urging government agencies not to comply with subpoenas and witnesses not to cooperate.

All the usual rules apply to this thread as it does to others and the PT thread, but this is not a daily PT thread as we hope folks that normally don’t follow politics will be able to follow along and understand the importance of this, the third impeachment in the history of the United States.