Here’s what to expect from Trump’s impeachment trial on Wednesday – Business Insider

President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate is set to resume in earnest Wednesday with opening arguments.First up, the House of Representatives impeachment managers — who act as prosecutors — will present their case for impeachment and removal over several days.Next, the president’s defense team will present a rebuttal — also expected to span several days — and argue for the two charges against Trump to be dismissed.Overall, the trial is expected to last two weeks and start at 1 p.m. ET each day.C-SPAN and TV networks will rely on the Senate’s live feed of the trial filmed with Congress’ cameras.Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is set to resume in earnest Wednesday as the two sides begin presenting their opening arguments for and against Trump’s removal from office.The House of Representatives impeached Trump last month on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.Both charges relate to Trump’s efforts to strong-arm the Ukrainian government into pursuing investigations that could be politically beneficial to him while withholding vital military aid and a White House meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately sought.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi transmitted the two articles of impeachment to the Senate last week after almost a month of delay while Democrats and Republicans fought over the terms of Trump’s impeachment trial.This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell drafted a resolution calling for each side to be given 24 hours to argue their case over three days of trial. Senators will then be given 16 hours for questioning.The resolution, if it passes Tuesday evening, also allows for senators to vote on whether to call witnesses. If they vote to do so, the witnesses would be deposed behind closed doors before a separate vote on whether to have to have them testify publicly.Opening arguments will kick off Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET.C-SPAN and TV networks will rely on the Senate’s live feed of the trial filmed with Congress’ cameras.C-SPAN will air and livestream the trial at cspan.org.The major cable news networks — ABC News, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN — will rely on the Senate feed to livestream the trial on their respective websites, which will be open to the public.Insider will also embed a livestream of the trial here when it kicks off.Here’s what to expectAs with any other trial, Trump’s impeachment trial consists of two sides. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is presiding over the trial.The prosecutors, known here as impeachment managers, consist of lawmakers from the House of Representatives. The defense team is made up of lawyers tapped by the president.Below are the seven lawmakers who Pelosi named last week to serve as impeachment managers:Rep. Adam Schiff of CaliforniaRep. Jerry Nadler of New YorkRep. Zoe Lofgren of CaliforniaRep. Val Demings of FloridaRep. Hakeem Jeffries of New YorkRep. Jason Crow of ColoradoRep. Sylvia Garcia of TexasStarting Wednesday, the impeachment managers, led by Schiff and Nadler, are expected to take several days to present their evidence against the president. This will include relevant testimony and documents that were obtained during the impeachment inquiry in the House last year.But it’s also likely to include new details and documents that Lev Parnas, one of Trump’s Ukrainian associates intricately involved in the Ukraine pressure campaign, provided to the House Intelligence Committee this month.Next up, Trump’s legal team will argue against impeachment and removal and move to have the charges tossed out. The defense’s arguments will also most likely last several days. Here are the lawyers representing Trump in various capacities:Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, who is spearheading the defense teamMichael Purpura, Cipollone’s deputy in the White House counsel’s officePatrick Philbin, another deputy in Cipollone’s officeJay Sekulow, Trump’s personal lawyerJane Raskin, Trump’s personal lawyerKenneth Starr, the former Whitewater independent counselRobert Ray, who succeeded Starr as independent counsel in the Whitewater investigationAlan Dershowitz, a Harvard emeritus law professor and constitutional and criminal-law scholarPam Bondi, the former attorney general of FloridaThe president’s legal team has argued that the charges against him, along with the impeachment process as a whole, are “constitutionally invalid” and should be dismissed. It is likely to drill down on this argument during its opening arguments.Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly made contradictory or outright false statements about the impeachment process itself and the constitutionality of impeaching Trump.On Tuesday, for instance, as the Senate debated the rules of the trial, Sekulow said Democrats didn’t seek enough testimony from witnesses before charging the president with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.He failed to mention that the reason Democrats were unable to obtain key testimony from senior officials was the White House’s directive that no one cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.Sekulow also argued the courts should step in to settle disputes between Trump and Congress over subpoenas and witness testimony. But the Justice Department has argued for months that the courts should not have a role in the matter because it would become politicized.At another point, Sekulow said the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election found no evidence of obstruction of justice.In fact, Mueller’s team outlined more than 10 instances that fit the criteria for obstruction but declined to make a “traditional prosecutorial judgment” because of Justice Department guidelines barring prosecutors from indicting a sitting president.The Senate trial will go on for six days a week — senators get Sunday off — and is expected to begin at 1 p.m. ET every day to accommodate Roberts’ schedule for the Supreme Court. The trial is likely to last about two weeks but could go longer if the Senate changes the rules of procedure.Grace Panetta contributed to this report.