Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Senate as its most senior Democratic member, is expected to preside over former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial instead of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, according to a Senate source not authorized to speak publicly. The Supreme Court’s chief justice presides over impeachment trials of sitting presidents, but the president of the Senate does so over other impeachment trials. Ref. USAToday.
Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy to retire in 2022 after 8 terms. First elected in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Leahy, 81, is the Senate's president pro tempore, chair of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee and the most senior member of the upper chamber. Ref. USAToday.