Trump impeachment trial live updates: Biden says charge 'not in dispute' in 1st comments on acquittal

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."

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

Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett's life journey has taken her from the housing projects in Brooklyn, New York, to a historic role as House impeachment manager in the second Senate trial against Trump.

A delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Plaskett is one of nine Democrats tasked with prosecuting the House's impeachment case against Trump.

On Wednesday, Plaskett presented new evidence in the impeachment trial -- showing previously unreleased videos of the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, contending Trump "fanned the flame of violence, and it worked."

She is also a former law student of lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who was a constitutional law professor at American University. As he introduced her Wednesday afternoon as the first delegate to participate in a Senate trial, Raskin reflected that introducing Plaskett during the Senate trial is "a moment of special pride for me."

"I hope I'm not violating any records or laws saying she was an A student then and an A+ student now," Raskin quipped.

Plaskett, who grew up in Brooklyn and a housing community on Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, also said Wednesday she was a congressional staffer during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Now a mother of five, Plaskett sheltered in her office during the siege on the Capitol.

-ABC News' John Parkinson

The Senate has reconvened for Trump's second impeachment trial and will continue to hear arguments from House impeachment managers on Thursday.

Senate Chaplain Barry Black first led the chamber in a prayer. Presiding officer Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., then led the group through the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the traditional "Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye!" proclamation from the sergeant-at-arms.

After brief remarks from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House managers will continue and conclude their presentation in support of the singular article of impeachment for "incitement of insurrection," receiving up to 16 hours over two days.

Managers on Wednesday argued that Trump spent months priming supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, in a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results after failed attempts to compel local, state and federal law enforcement and election officials to do so.

They also used never-before-seen Capitol security footage of senators, House members and former Vice President Mike Pence fleeing the chambers during the riot to transport lawmakers back to that moment when many of them were fearing for their lives.

Trump's team will then present their defense of the former president. They are also expected to receive up to 16 hours over two days.

-ABC News' Trish Turner

For as bad it as it was, it came close to being immeasurably and incalculably worse.

It's clear from the harrowing and intense presentation of the House managers that for all the talk of impeachment as a partisan exercise, the insurrectionists who invaded the Capitol didn't think along purely party lines.

If anything, prominent Republicans -- former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Mitt Romney among them -- were those who may have come closest to being attacked or even killed. Trump's own actions as documented in real time show him to be at best indifferent, and at worst directly culpable, for what happened Jan. 6.

With Democrats now midway through making their deadly serious case, the Senate trial is serving as a visceral reminder that the loyalties Republicans have shown to Trump really never were returned by Trump or many of his most fervent followers. "Destroy the GOP," one group of MAGA rally-goers chanted in video replayed at the trial Wednesday.

That probably shouldn't matter to senators as they convene as an impeachment jury. But with most national and state-level Republicans continuing their solid backing of the former president -- and those who side against him facing severe political backlash -- revisiting the horrors serve a broader purpose.

While predictions of final Senate votes are still premature, Trump may yet be saved from conviction by partisan loyalties wrapped in procedural niceties. Yet House managers are making the case that the party and the institutions that might protect him have never enjoyed Trump's respect.

-ABC News Political Director Rick Klein