Trump impeachment trial live updates: Biden makes 1st comments on acquittal

It's the trial most of Washington can't wait to be on the other side of -- and where the final vote is already almost beside the point.

The case against former President Donald Trump will be made to senators and voters simultaneously, of course. Either set of jurors were also witnesses in a certain way; the videos and social-media posts that became famous a month ago will be key to the case House managers make, in the very Senate chamber that was desecrated by rioters.

Trump's defense hinges on the argument that he deserves no blame for the attack. In the brief his lawyers submitted to the Senate, they claim that his "metaphorical 'fighting' language" does not link him to the actions of a "small group of criminals."

But as the new investigation launched Monday by Georgia's secretary of state makes clear, it's not just Trump's words at the rally on Jan. 6 that are alleged to have contributed to attempts to block Congress and former Vice President Mike Pence from doing their jobs.

Plenty of those who stormed the Capitol cited Trump's direct words. Even more were responding to what the now-former president was both saying or doing in the fateful weeks after he lost the election but refused to admit it.

Trump's lawyers are calling the impeachment trial "political theater." Trump put on his own show first -- and the strongest argument his legal team may have is that he should have been taken neither seriously nor literally.

-ABC News Political Director Rick Klein

House impeachment managers will use evidence that hasn't been seen before during the imminent trial, according to senior aides on the team.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reaffirmed the development in a press conference Tuesday morning.

"I believe the managers will present a very strong case the evidence will be powerful the evidence some of it will be new," Schumer said.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin and Benjamin Siegel

The Georgia Secretary of State's office has formally launched an investigation into former President Donald Trump's phone calls to state election officials in which he sought help to overturn the results of the election after President Joe Biden's narrow victory was certified twice.

The investigation, which follows a series of formal complaints filed by a law professor alleging that Trump violated the law during those calls, marks the first formal investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the election in the state.

Investigations by the secretary of state's office can take months to complete, but it marked a major development on the eve of Trump's second impeachment trial. The single article of impeachment against the president, which accuses him of inciting the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, briefly mentions the phone call with the secretary.

Trump's impeachment lawyers defended Trump's actions on the call in a brief submitted to the House the last week and "denied that President Trump acted improperly in that telephone call in any way."

In a statement sent to ABC News on Monday, Jason Miller, Trump's senior adviser, said, "There was nothing improper or untoward about a scheduled call between President Trump, Secretary Raffensperger and lawyers on both sides. If Mr. Raffensperger didn't want to receive calls about the election, he shouldn't have run for Secretary of State. And the only reason the call became public was because Mr. Raffensperger leaked it in an attempt to score political points."

Trump also defended his call while speaking at a rally in D.C. on Jan. 6.

"I thought it was a great conversation," he said. "People loved that the conversation."

-ABC New's Quinn Scanlan, Devin Dwyer and Olivia Rubin

Senate Democrats are focused on trying to tie a direct line between Trump's rhetoric and the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

An ABC News investigation into the nearly 200 accused rioters facing federal charges for their alleged involvement at the Capitol -- based on court filings, military records, interviews and available news reports -- found that at least 15 individuals who stormed the building have since said that they acted based on Trump's encouragement, including some of those accused of the most violent and serious crimes.

Trump's lawyers have defended his comments at the Jan. 6 rally as ones that "fall squarely within the protections of the First Amendment."

"Mr. Trump, having been elected nationally, was elected to be the voice for his national constituency," his lawyers wrote in a brief last week.

-ABC News' Olivia Rubin, Alexander Mallin and Alex Hosenball