The House of Representatives on Monday is sending its impeachment article against the former U.S. President to the full Senate ahead of a trial even as Republicans in the Senate are split over how to respond. The article that all House Democrats and ten House Republicans voted to pass in the last weeks of Donald Trump’s Presidency, accused him of “incitement of insurrection” in the Capitol riot of January 6th. The trial is expected to begin on February 9th. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren warned in an interview on CNN that, “We need accountability, accountability for Donald Trump and accountability for everyone who participated in that insurrection.” Republican Senator Mitt Romney said on Fox News, “It is pretty clear that over the last year, there has been an effort to corrupt the election in the United States, and it was not by President Biden, it was by President Trump.” But Mr. Romney appears to be in the minority within his party where a majority of elected Republicans still seem intent on questioning the election results and defending the former president. The Washington Post reports that, “Members of the Republican National Committee also were in a heated debate over the weekend on how to respond to impeachment — and how fiercely to defend Trump, who maintains support among a majority of the 168 committee members.” What is remarkable about the Trump loyalists is that members of Congress continue to receive violent threats from pro-Trump people. According to Associated Press, “Federal law enforcement officials are examining a number of threats aimed at members of Congress as the second trial of former President Donald Trump nears, including ominous chatter about killing legislators or attacking them outside of the U.S. Capitol.” 

Reflecting the battle at the federal level, Arizona’s Republican legislators appear firmly in the Trump camp as the state-party moved to censure those officials they felt were not loyal enough to the former president, including Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake and the late Sen. John McCain’s wife Cindy McCain. There is little acknowledgement of the on-going emergence of Trump’s various coup attempts. The Inspector General of the Department of Justice on Monday announced he will probe allegations that Trump colluded with a DOJ official named Jeffrey Clark to oust the Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen in order to force the state of Georgia to invalidate Joe Biden’s election win in that state and thereby overturn the presidential election.

Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was the president’s most vocal surrogate in efforts to overturn the election, is now facing a $1.3 billion lawsuit by the tech company Dominion. The company accuses Giuliani of spreading lies about their voting machines being involved in fraud and helping Biden win. The complaint says, “The harm to Dominion’s business and reputation is unprecedented and irreparable because of how fervently millions of people believe it.”