"I think about when we were kids and the baby doll that I played with and my brothers were playing with G.I. Val Demings, D-Fla., who served as an impeachment manager in Trump's previous Senate trial, says Raskin's focus on constitutional law is a fundamental part of the way he thinks. Pelosi called on him because of his background in constitutional law and his clear arguments on the Judiciary Committee, and because he helped draft the article of impeachment - incitement of insurrection - he will be trying. House Democrats say that's a big part of why Raskin was chosen for the job. But he's going to use that to to move himself and his values forward for the good of the country. Of course, he's genuinely devastated and heartbroken. "It is taking the tragedy of the loss of his son and the tragedy of the attack on the Capitol and putting them together in a way that says, 'We have work to do, we have to carry on,' " Wermiel said. That decision doesn't surprise people who know Raskin well, said Stephen Wermiel, who taught constitutional law alongside Raskin at American University in Washington. "I think that we all knew it was something that I needed to see us through," he said. He said he talked things over with his wife and their daughters and decided to take on the task. "I mean it's a solemn and awesome responsibility and I feel the weight of it all the time," Raskin said. Raskin was grieving that loss when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on him to lead this impeachment. Days before the mob breached the Capitol, Raskin's 25-year-old son killed himself after struggling for years with depression. "Everybody can understand that if we had a rule that you can't be tried for anything that you did in your last three or four or five weeks in office that would basically be sending an extremely dangerous signal to future presidents."ĭemocrats plan to argue that Trump's speech before the riot and his efforts to overturn election results directly led to what Raskin says was a traumatic attack.įor Raskin, that day's events were an added layer of trauma.
Jamie raskin tragedy trial#
Raskin dismissed arguments by Republicans who want to skip a trial on Trump's actions because, they say, the very process of impeaching a former president is unconstitutional. This was an effort by the president, and also by the mob that followed him to interfere with the counting of Electoral College votes that was going on at the time." "This was a direct attack on our electoral institutions. "There's nothing abstract or conceptual or academic about this high crime and misdemeanor for any member of Congress," Raskin said. By that time, more than a month will have passed between the day when senators were witnesses to the crime of the insurrection and when they are called on to be impartial arbiters of whether Trump was personally responsible for the events. Senators have already been sworn in to their roles as jurors in the trial, but arguments won't start until at least Feb. "This violent attack, insurrection, against the union is the worst presidential crime in American history, and would set a terribly dangerous precedent if we didn't respond to it." "The Constitution applies on your first day of office it applies on your last day in office and everything in between," Raskin said in an interview with NPR. Democrats have always faced an uphill battle to persuade the Senate to convict Trump and move on to a vote to bar him from federal office, but Raskin says he has to try anyway. Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, is preparing to make that case to a Senate where 45 of 50 Republicans voted Tuesday to reject the second part of his argument. 6, and the Constitution allows Congress to hold the former president accountable through impeachment. Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin is preparing to lead the second Senate trial of Donald Trump with two clear arguments in mind: Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol on Jan.
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