Trump's second impeachment trial: Day 2

Many of the videos used as evidence by the impeachment managers this week were originally posted to Parler, a social media platform that was popular among Trump supporters at the time of the insurrection. 

Parler was taken offline after Amazon Web Services pulled hosting support for the site in the days after the insurrection. 

An anonymous computer programmer who uses the online name “Crash override” and the Twitter handle @donk_enby realized that the social media platform was full of videos that could be used as potential evidence to identify insurrectionists. 

The programmer sprang into action and began downloading videos from Parler before the site was taken fully offline. "I had an efficient way to download it all. I knew what was there, but it seemed that nobody else could see the value,” she told CNN on Wednesday. In total she gathered 30 terabytes – that’s 30,000 gigabytes – of video, she said.

Seeing so much of the material being used as evidence in this week’s impeachment trials, she told CNN:

She told CNN she is not based in the United States and describes herself as a “hacktivist” – she states in her Twitter bio she uses she/her pronouns. Although she describes herself as a “hacktivist,” she clarified that “everything I archived was publicly accessible.”

ProPublica posted hundreds of the videos gathered by @donk_enby to a database on its website. Parler videos being used by the House impeachment managers were downloaded from this ProPublica database.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said he found much of the House impeachment managers' case against former President Trump jarring, adding that the the rioters' attempts to thwart a peaceful transfer of power should alarm anyone who loves America.

"There's so much. There's no one thing. There are many things," said Cassidy when asked today if he found anything in Democrats' case for impeachment especially jarring. "There's so much to say that should be taken away. How do you narrow it?"

"You realize that there were people, insurrectionists, that tried to affect the peaceful transfer of power and that should give anyone who loves our republic great pause," he added, speaking outside the Senate chamber moments before the impeachment trial was set to resume. 

Cassidy on Monday was the the sole Republican to switch his vote after an initial vote on the constitutionality of the trial last month. He joined five other GOP colleagues to vote to allow the trial to continue.

Cassidy was reelected in 2020 meaning he we will not face reelection for six years. His vote to proceed with the impeachment trial earned was met with a rebuke from the Republican Party of of Louisiana which issued a statement today saying they were "profoundly disappointed" by his vote.

“We feel that an impeachment trial of a private citizen is not only an unconstitutional act, but also an attack on the very foundation of American democracy, which will have far reaching and unforeseen consequences for our republic," the statement said.

Rep. David Cicilline, one of the House impeachment managers, laid out the timeline of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in his remarks today from the Senate floor.

Cicilline argued that former President Trump "did not once condemn this attack."

Cicilline, of Rhode Island’s 1st district, has been a member of the House Judiciary Committee since 2014 and serves as the chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. Cicilline also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Cicilline has worked as a member of the House Judiciary Committee to investigate then President Trump during his first impeachment trial. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Cicilline to the more prominent role of impeachment manager during this second trial on Jan. 12.

“The President is a clear and present danger to our republic. We will hold him accountable,” Cicilline tweeted.  

Cicilline is serving his sixth term in Congress. Early in his career, Cicilline served as a public defender in the District of Columbia. Cicilline served two terms as mayor of Providence and four terms in the Rhode Island House of Representatives.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, described sitting through the presentation by the managers today as “extremely quiet, you could have heard a pin drop,” adding that the footage was “riveting.”

“The presentations were compelling, particularly by Representative Plaskett, and also I thought that the Representative from Colorado was very good, as well,” she said.

"I'll always be grateful to law enforcement and the Capitol police for protecting us, but also proud of the fact that we came back that night and finished our constitutional duty, we did not let the rioters accomplish their goal of disrupting the vote,” she added. 

The Senate is back in session after taking a break for dinner.

Before the break, House impeachment managers presented chilling video – some that had never been seen before – depicting various violent and graphic moments of the insurrection.

They are continuing their presentation now.

Sen. John Thune, the minority whip and a member of GOP leadership, told reporters that he believes the House managers have done an “effective job” and are “connecting the dots” from former President Trump’s words to the insurrection.

Thune added later that “I think they’ve done a good job of connecting the dots. The President’s Twitter feed is a matter of public record, and I think I said [they’ve] done an effective job of just going back several months and just showing that public record.”

Asked how he was feeling, Thune said, “I feel sorry for you guys and the staff and everybody else who was here that day. I just think it was a very traumatic experience for a lot of people here and not just people here, but on the way here and anybody who was caught up in the mob. It is a harsh reminder of what happens when you let something like that get out of hand.”

As CNN has reported, it is still unclear what impact all of this has on someone like Thune’s ultimate vote on the question of conviction.

In another sign that a wave of Senate Republicans are not swayed to vote to convict former President Trump at this point, Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of the Republican leadership, compared the protests in the summer to what happened on Jan. 6 at the Capitol.

Asked if it changed his mind about convicting Trump, Blunt, who is up for reelection in Missouri in 2022, said:

Asked if he were shaken by the video, Blunt said, "Well I've seen parts of it and I've talked to the police about a lot of this, so, you know, it's obviously a tragic day for the country and not at all what we'd want to see people all over the world seeing happen in the United States."

Sen. Mitt Romney, who was seen in one of the videos being directed away from the rioters by Officer Eugene Goodman, said he looked forward to thanking the Capitol police officer when he next sees him.

He called the videos shown by the House managers “obviously very troubling” and said that he didn’t know that he was that close to the rioters.

Former President Trump's defense lawyer Bruce Castor said the House managers failed in their presentation to connect the rioters' acts to Trump. 

Asked if he is worried the video will have an emotional impact on the jury, he said, “It would have an emotional impact on any jury. But there are two sides of the coin and we have not played ours.”