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How Trump's impeachment differs from a criminal trial

Posted at 1:07 AM, Jan 18, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-18 01:07:27-05

BY ERIC TUCKER, WASHINGTON — The Senate's impeachment trial of President Donald Trump is not the typical trial you might have seen on TV.

The Senate will serve in some ways as both judge and jury.

The actual presiding judge is the top one in the country, Chief Justice John Roberts.

Witnesses can be questioned not only by the lawyers on both sides by members of the jury.

And the presiding judge can be decisively overruled.

At the end of the trial, it would take a two-thirds majority of senators, 67 if all 100 are voting, to convict Trump and remove him from office.