It just dawned on me. (Senate trial)

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21. it remains to be seen how this plays out.

but he's *not* a judge or justice in this role, and it's *not* a trial under the usual rules and practices of judicial trials and federal law.

even though a member of the judicial branch is "presiding" over it, the usual rules of evidence and relevant testimony and materiality and so on do officially apply. it's a political trial conducted under the rules of a political body.

the senate *may* delegate certain powers to roberts and *may* instruct him to make certain decisions and *may* even instruct him to make it look a lot like a judicial trial, and roberts *may* actually exercise those delegated powers in some particular instances.

but that's a lot of ifs, and i'm not holding my breath for roberts to keep it an objective, impartial trial that doesn't stray into smears of democrats.


in fact, i'd make a big bet that the senate *will* use this as an opportunity to smear democrats, biden at a minimum, but i doubt i'd be able to find anyone fool enough to take that bet.