“The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.” -Article 1, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution

Assuming a majority of House members vote to impeach, the Constitution requires that a trial, as you can read above, be held in the Senate. As I understand it, the format for that trial is relatively flexible, with a few exceptions that have either been outlined by our founders or written into law over the past several hundred years. Most notably, the trial would have to be presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, with the members of the Senate serving as the jury. And, as noted above, prior to the trial, every member of the U.S. Senate would be required to raise his or her right hand and swear a special oath. The oath reads as follows – “I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of Donald J. Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help me God.”

So, to recap, the members of the Senate, before being empaneled on the jury have to swear to their impartiality, and their willingness to consider the evidence objectively… The problem is, some Republicans have already indicated that they have no intention of honoring this solemn pledge to provide “impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.” Here, for instance, is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Fox News this past Friday, admitting that he won’t be considering the evidence impartially, but instead “coordinating” Donald Trump’s defense with the White House, essentially ceding the constitutional role of Congress to provide a check on the Executive.

Mitch McConnell: Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with White House Counsel. There will be no difference between the President’s position and our position as to how to handle this pic.twitter.com/baFaTKWvUl

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) December 13, 2019

[Even Michael Steele, the former head of the Republican National Committee, has come out to say that McConnell’s position here directly contradicts the special oath these Senators will be taking. “So ya’ll be lying when you say these words?,” Steele said on Twitter.]

In more normal times, a Senator who said such a thing would likely be forced to recuse himself from the proceedings. It’s contrary not only to the special oath discussed above, but to the very constitutional underpinnings of the institution itself. The Senate is not subservient to the President of the United States. Congress, according to the the Constitution, is a co-equal branch, and the oversight responsibility afforded to Congress is core to our democracy… It’s essentially what stands between us and despotism. And, in the above quote, Mitch McConnell is clearly stating that he has no intention of taking this role – the role outlined in the Constitution – seriously.

And McConnell is not alone. In a CNN interview yesterday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said, “I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here,” going on to predict that Donald Trump’s impeachment would “die quickly” in the Republican led Senate… Michigan Congressman Justin Amash, who was recently driven out of the Republican Party for his refusal to kowtow to Donald Trump, responded by saying, “Senator Graham has chosen to violate his oath to support and defend the Constitution, his oath to do impartial justice in an impeachment trial, and his duty to represent all the people of his state, not just those who share his political views or desire a particular outcome.”

So we have at least two Republican Senators now stating on the record that they have every intention of not being ‘fair juror(s)’ in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. The question is, what can we do about it? How can we ensure that Donald Trump’s trial in the Senate is fair, given that Trumpists, like Graham and McConnell and Mitch McConnell have indicated that they would be working to ensure that, once impeachment reaches the Senate, it ‘die(s) quickly’?

Here’s the thing, though. We may still have a shot at doing this correctly, in the serious manner in which our founders had intended. While it takes a two-thirds majority in the Senate to remove a president from office, it only takes a simple majority – or 51 Senators – to set the rules governing how the trial will proceed. So, while it’s true that we may never get the two-thirds vote we need to remove Donald Trump from office, or even a single Republican vote for conviction, for that matter, we may be able to convince a few Republican Senators, like Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan Collins of Maine, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, to do the right thing and vote against McConnell and Graham on their plan to essentially dismiss the case against the President without a calling a single witness… It’ll be a difficult task, but we only need four Republican Senators to ensure that the process be fair, and we have to try.

And, not only could four Republican Senators ensure that the trial of Donald Trump not be rigged, but they could actually help bring more evidence to light. Here, with more on this, is an excerpt from yesterday’s Washington Post.

Democrats (if they can attract the support of four Republican Senators) could demand that the mountains of documents the administration refused to turn over to the House impeachment inquiry be admitted as evidence at the Senate trial. The administration stonewalled those documents on the absurd grounds that the inquiry was illegitimate.

But McConnell presumably can’t argue that his own impeachment trial is illegitimate, rendering that excuse a dead letter.

So Democrats could insist that the administration produce some of these documents during the trial.

That could be revelatory. During the inquiry, House Democrats subpoenaed documents from the State Department, the Office of Management and Budget, Vice President Pence and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, among others…

Democrats could also insist on the right to call witnesses, such as acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton (both of whom likely have direct knowledge of Trump’s decision to freeze aid to extort Ukraine), as well as Giuliani.

So, what are the chances that we can convince four Republican Senators to do the right thing here, and stop McConnell’s plan to rig the impeachment trial in the Senate? While I don’t have any illusions about any Republicans actually voting for impeachment, I’d have to think that some headed into reelections campaigns in purple states might be willing to at least vote for a fair and open process… I know it’s a lot to ask in today’s world, but we at least have to try… If you have a Republican Senator, please call their office and demand that they vote in favor of a fair and open process like our founders built this system of government to ensure.