House impeachment managers still seek ways to hold Trump accountable

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), when posting a picture of the gift, clarified they were the second Trump impeachment managers because “the former president was that bad” and was impeached twice.

A year later, the nine impeachment managers have remained in close contact. They’re part of the “strange club,” as Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) described it, one of just four sets of House members to ever try a presidential impeachment case in the Senate.

This group has largely returned to rank-and-file status, going back to their normal committee work and providing constituent services back in their districts. They suffer from a bit of political whiplash, because while they recorded the most bipartisan conviction vote ever for a presidential impeachment, Trump has not shrunk from the limelight.

He is still considering another run for president, and many House Republicans remain loyal to the former president as he continues to spout false claims about the 2020 election.

Thee warnings that the managers sounded during last year’s trial, said Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), “are just as real and serious today as they were a year ago.”

Their team’s leader, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), is continuing to pursue Trump through his work on the House’s select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) is pursuing a lawsuit against Trump and some of his closest allies for their role in inciting the riot.

They are trying to focus on advancing President Biden’s legislative agenda, but one eye often strays toward Trump and his ongoing attacks on the 2020 results. The group emphasizes there are no regrets, that it laid out the evidence in a compelling narrative that brought along seven Senate Republicans, falling 10 votes shy of the 67 needed to convict and prevent Trump from running for office again.

“My only regret is that 10 Republican senators did not join Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Pat Toomey in doing the right thing,” Neguse said, naming the seven Republican senators who voted to convict. “It seems like a lot, but 10 senators is not a lot. We got 85 percent of the way there on conviction.”

A year later, the managers are largely involved in some work related to the insurrection. Neguse is part of a team that is negotiating changes to the Electoral Count Act, the 1877 relic that Trump tried to exploit by pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject certain states’ electors in hopes of overturning the election.

Neguse disagrees with the many…