1. At lunchtime, I switched among the news stations to see how each "titled" the presentation of the impeachment articles to the Senate. One is calling this "The Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump." That struck me as odd. Impeachment is analogous to indictment.
2. Mr. Trump has already been impeached or indicted by the House of Representatives in their role like that of a grand jury. Now that the articles of impeachment--or bill of indictment--have been presented to the Senate, a trial on the charges made by the House has come.
3. When, in a court of law, a person is charged with a crime, we don't refer to the trial as "the indictment of trial of so and so." We talked about O.J. Simpson's murder trial, Felicity Huffman's bribery trial. In other words, the trials were referred to by the charge.
4. It would make more sense to me to refer to these proceedings with reference to the charges themselves. This is a trial for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Abuse and Obstruction Trial of Donald Trump would be a more apt title.
5. It's a minor point. But for more than a century-and-a-half, US history students have been wrongly taught that Andrew Johnson was never impeached. In fact, both he and Bill Clinton (and now Donald Trump) have been impeached. Johnson and Clinton were acquitted.
