The US Senate voted largely along party lines Tuesday to confirm it is within their power to try former President Donald Trump even though he already left office.

The Senate’s 56-44 vote saw six Republicans join ranks with all the chamber’s Democrats in agreeing the process is in-line with the US Constitution.

Senators earlier heard arguments from both the House managers prosecuting the case, and Trump’s defense team, as they weighed whether or not there was standing for the case against the former president to go forward.

Impeachment trials are intended to result in a president’s removal from office if the individual is convicted of committing high crimes and misdemeanors, the legal threshold prosecutors must meet.

Trump’s defense sought to argue that the trial was moot since Trump left office following his Nov. 3 electoral defeat. Lead defense attorney Bruce Castor acknowledged Trump “was removed by the voters” despite his client’s repeated insistence that the election was “stolen” from him via widespread voter fraud.

That defense, however, was rebutted ahead of its formal roll out by prosecutors who said it would create a “January exception,” allowing for an outgoing president to act without regard for the law in his final days in office.

Trump stands accused of inciting the fatal Jan. 6 Capitol riot that resulted in five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer. Two other law enforcement officers who sought to defend the federal legislature that day took their lives in the aftermath.

Source: Agencies