Senators Threatened Each Day of Trial with Prison

Senate impeachment trial rules call for the sergeant-at-arms to declare at the beginning of each day: “Here ye! Here ye! Here ye! All persons are commanded to keep silent, on pain of imprisonment.”

Roll Call explains: “In the past, the Senate has preferred to expel the senator from office, rather than send him or her to jail, so as not to deprive a state of its full representation. Such confrontations have occurred so infrequently in the Senate’s history that ambiguity is more readily available than specifics.”

“No senator has ever been imprisoned by Senate officials, but in the past, the threat of arrest and jail has silenced even the most agitated senators.”