Impeachment trial – live: Trump poured ‘kerosene on the flames’ as Pence family fled for lives, Democrats say

The trial will resume shortly.

Here is the dramatic video that kicked off the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Impeachment manager David Cicilline says Donald Trump’s tweets following the Capitol riot “chills me to the core” every time he reads it.

“The President of the United States sided with the insurrectionists. He celebrated their cause. He validated their attack. He told them, ‘remember this day forever,’ hours after they marched through these halls looking to assassinate Vice President Pence, the Speaker of the House, and any of us they could find,” he said.

Here is that tweet:

Democrats are marching in lock-step in framing Trump's constitutional argument as a "January exception".

If the Senate rules impeaching a former president is unconstitutional, it would create a precedent where a president could do anything in their final weeks in office without facing any Congressional consequences, the so-called "January exception".

"Presidents can't inflame insurrection in their final weeks and then walk like nothing happened. And yet that is the rule that President Trump asks you to adopt," says Joe Neguse.

Lead impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, narrated the events of the Capitol riots, as video played of quotes from Congress members like Lindsey Graham: "They could have killed us all."

More colour from the floor of the Senate as video played of the 6 January riot.

"The acoustics of a half-filled Senate chamber are excellent. the sounds of the mob just surrounded us all over again," said NYT correspondent Emily Cochrane.

The trial of William Belknap was used by prosecutors as a precedent for the constitutionality of impeachment of a former officeholder.

While he was ultimately acquitted, the trial went ahead.

From the annals of the United States' Senate:

"An impeachment trial for a secretary of war occupied much of the Senate’s time during May 1876.

At issue was the behavior of William Belknap, war secretary in the administration of President Ulysses Grant. A former Iowa state legislator and Civil War general, Belknap had held his cabinet post for nearly eight years. In the rollicking era that Mark Twain dubbed the Gilded Age, Belknap was famous for his extravagant Washington parties and his elegantly attired first and second wives. Many questioned how he managed such a grand lifestyle on his $8,000 government salary.

By early 1876, answers began to surface. A House of Representatives committee uncovered evidence supporting a pattern of corruption blatant even by the standards of the scandal-tarnished Grant administration.

The trail of evidence extended back to 1870. In that year, Belknap’s luxury-loving first wife assisted a wheeler-dealer named Caleb Marsh by getting her husband to select one of Marsh’s associates to operate the lucrative military trading post at Fort Sill in Indian territory. Marsh’s promise of generous kickbacks prompted Secretary Belknap to make the appointment. Over the next five years, the associate funneled thousands of dollars to Marsh, who provided Belknap regular quarterly payments totaling over $20,000.

On March 2, 1876, just minutes before the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on articles of impeachment, Belknap raced to the White House, handed Grant his resignation, and burst into tears.

This failed to stop the House. Later that day, members voted unanimously to send the Senate five articles of impeachment, charging Belknap with “criminally disregarding his duty as Secretary of War and basely prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain.”

The Senate convened its trial in early April, with Belknap present, after agreeing that it retained impeachment jurisdiction over former government officials. During May, the Senate heard more than 40 witnesses, as House managers argued that Belknap should not be allowed to escape from justice simply by resigning his office.

On August 1, 1876, the Senate rendered a majority vote against Belknap on all five articles. As each vote fell short of the necessary two-thirds, however, he won acquittal. Belknap was not prosecuted further; he died in 1890."

From Indy’s correspondent on the ground, Griffin Connolly:

As video played in the Senate chamber of gruesome scenes from the Capitol riot, the 100 senators watched from their desks. Whereas at Mr Trump's first impeachment trial the galleries above were dotted with guests, they were mostly empty this time around.

Anticipating Trump’s lawyer's defence that it is unconstitutional to impeach a former president no longer in office, the prosecution is presenting cases dating back to the founding fathers arguing precedent former officeholders could be impeached.

Democratic impeachment manager, Joe Neguse, pointed to William Belknap, Secretary of War to Ulysses Grant. After resigning for taking kickbacks, he was impeached by the Senate but was ultimately acquitted.

Marjorie Taylor Greene was hit by yet another furious backlash after she suggested that the Capitol rioters were not Trump supporters despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Over a dozen of the rioters have said that they were following Mr Trump's directions.

She asked on Twitter: "If the January 6 organizers were Trump supporters, then why did they attack us while we were objecting to electoral college votes for Joe Biden?

"The attack RUINED our objection that we spent weeks preparing for, which devastated our efforts on behalf of Trump and his voters."

She added: "They placed pipe bombs at the RNC and the DNC the night before. They did NOT just target one party. They targeted Republicans and Democrats. They were against the government ALL together."

Gustaf Kilander reports.