Trump impeachment conviction urged in letter circulated by House aides

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A group of aides to members of the U.S. House of Representatives plans to call on members of the U.S. Senate to convict former President Trump on an impeachment charge of "inciting an insurrection."

The request is spelled out in a draft letter that was being circulated Wednesday on Capitol Hill. A copy was obtained by Fox News.

The letter offers no indication of whether the aides circulating it work for House Democrats or House Republicans, or for House members from both parties. It states at the end that signers were "currently being collected."

No signees were listed on the copy that Fox News obtained.

The letter states that on Jan. 6, "our workplace was attacked by a violent mob trying to stop the electoral college vote count. That mob was incited by ex-president Donald J. Trump and his political allies, some of whom we pass every day in the hallways at work."

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The letter says a number of the aides took action to protect themselves Jan. 6 after being raised in an era of mass shootings and other horrific events in America over the past quarter-century.

"Many of us attended school in the post-Columbine era," the letter states, referring to a Colorado high school massacre in 1999, "and were trained to respond to active shooter situations in our classrooms. As the mob smashed through Capitol Police barricades, broke doors and windows, and charged into the Capitol with body armor and weapons, many of us hid behind chairs and under desks or barricaded ourselves in offices. Others watched on TV and frantically tried to reach bosses and colleagues as they fled for their lives."

The letter argues that Trump deserves conviction.

"On January 6, the former President broke America’s 230-year legacy of the peaceful transition of power when he incited a mob to disrupt the counting of electoral college votes," the letter says. "Six people died. A Capitol Police officer –one of our co-workers who guards and greets us every day – was beaten to death. The attack on our workplace was inspired by lies told by the former president and others about the results of the election in a baseless, months-long effort to reject votes lawfully cast by the American people."

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Whether Trump is guilty of the House impeachment charge is what a planned Senate trial will determine.

On Jan. 13, one week after the riot at the Capitol, the U.S. House impeached Trump on a charge of "inciting an insurrection" in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, linking the riot to a speech Trump delivered at a nearby outdoor rally that same day.

"If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore," Trump said at one point.

The article of impeachment was delivered to the Senate on Monday, with senators sworn in as impeachment jurors on Tuesday.

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The trial is set to begin in February – although 45 Senate Republicans opposed the plan Tuesday in a procedural vote, claiming a trial should not be held because Trump is no longer in office.

Others have argued that an impeachment trial would simply further divide the U.S.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who called for the procedural vote Tuesday, contended afterward that the opposition from 45 members of the GOP meant the Trump impeachment trial would be "dead on arrival," with no chance of resulting in a conviction of Trump.