From WFTV9:

“I think it’s important to distinguish between the sentence ability to have a trial and the sensibility to convict at the end of the trial” says congressional expert James Wallner of the R-Street Institute.  “The Senate clearly has the constitutional power to adjudicate articles of impeachment from the House and I would argue it has to, if the House sends articles of impeachment, the Senate has to organize itself to consider them and they have to dispose of them in some way.”

Wallner contends that while the Senate must take up the article of impeachment there is no precedent for conviction after a person has left office, as Donald Trump did at noon on January 20.

“The Constitution gives the Senate the right to try all impeachments and the use of the word all means all,” says legal expert Paul Rosenzweig, a Senior Fellow at the R-Street Institute. “The Senate tries all such impeachments and while we have never done this before in respect to a president, we have a history of doing this with others such as Belknap.”

Rosenzweig is referring to Secretary of War William W. Belknap who was impeached in 1876 and tried in the Senate, even though he had already resigned.

Watch the full interview here.

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