It is unclear how senate leaders will honor Mr. Schoen’s request. If they speeded up the trial to ensure it was completed by sunset on Friday, it would be by far the fastest presidential impeachment trial in history. If they suspend it as Mr. Schoen has requested, the proceedings could turn into a federal holiday on Monday and what was supposed to be a holiday week for the Senate, when members would be given a break to go home to their states. If leaders chose to delay it further, it would scrap the planned move to confirm Mr. Biden’s nominees and advance his pandemic bill.
The New Washington
Mr. Schoen said in a telephone interview Friday that he had not heard from leaders about a range of issues related to the process, including the schedule and how much time each side would be given to present their arguments. Mr Schumer, who has negotiated these matters with Mr McConnell, is expected to reveal the details shortly before the trial begins.
Mr. Schoen is part of a second group of lawyers who stepped in to represent Mr. Trump in his second impeachment trial. The first team quit after his lawyers refused to commit to the former president’s preferential strategy – that they defended him by repeating his baseless claims that the election was stolen from him.
Now Mr. Schoen joins a list of prominent Jews in Washington who have encountered problems with their observance of the Sabbath. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the daughter and son-in-law of the former president who are Orthodox Jews, said they had received special permission from a rabbi to attend Mr. Trump’s inaugural festivities in 2017. They said they would at least obtained a similar exemption. once later in Mr. Trump’s presidency to travel on the Sabbath.
During the 1999 impeachment trial against Bill Clinton, Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut senator who is an observant Jew, walked four miles from his Georgetown apartment to Capitol Hill to serve on the jury. Because Jewish law teaches that one may break the Sabbath when it comes to “ caring for human life, ” Mr. Lieberman, in consultation with his rabbis, devised his own rule that would keep him from campaigning or any strictly political activity on the Sabbath, but would attend Senate sessions and vote, if necessary.
However, he did not drive a car or elevator, in accordance with a restriction arising from a ban on sparking and fire.
Mr Schoen’s request will now have to take into account decades-old impeachment rules and the schedule, work habits and politics of the Senate. Under the rules, the Senate must meet Monday through Saturday for impeachment trials and only interrupt on Sunday, the schedule followed during both Trump’s final trial and Clinton’s final trial.