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

The Senate has reconvened for Trump's second impeachment trial and will hear arguments from Trump's defense team Friday.

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.

Trump's defense attorney Michael van der Veen, then took the Senate floor.

With the defense team expected to use only three or four hours of the 16 hours over two days allotted to them for opening arguments, the question and answer portion of the trial could begin as early as Friday afternoon.

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and Mike Lee -- acting under oath as impartial jurors in the Senate impeachment trial -- met with Trump's defense team after House managers wrapped their arguments on Thursday.

Cruz, asked what was the purpose of the meeting with Trump legal team, said, "We were discussing their legal strategy and sharing our thoughts."

-ABC News' Trish Turner

Trump's second impeachment trial -- the first for a former president -- resumes Friday at noon with arguments from Trump's defense attorneys who are making their case that Trump is not guilty for incitement of insurrection.

The public should expect to see four attorneys on the Trump team: David Schoen, Bruce Castor, Michael van der Veen and Julieanne Bateman. They're expected to argue the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office -- despite the Senate already voting to affirm it has the authority -- and that Trump's use of social media and comments made on Jan. 6 are protected by the First Amendment. They've also signaled they'll only use three or four hours of their allotted time.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who joined Democrats and five other Republicans in voting that the trial is constitutional -- changing his vote from an earlier motion on the issue -- said he hopes the defense team can explain the timeline of events and Trump's repeated assertions that the election was stolen.

House impeachment managers, over the past two days, 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, and that he showed a "lack of remorse."

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 -- reminding lawmakers of when many of them were fearing for their lives.

Democrats would need at least 17 Republicans to side with them in order to convict Trump and bar him from federal office, but the majority of Republicans have already signaled they will vote to acquit, despite evidence of the attack showing several of them may have also been targets.

Truths are less in question than consequences in Trump's second impeachment trial.

In wrapping their case, House managers argued for Trump's conviction in part by talking about what it would mean to do nothing.

"I'm afraid he's going to run again and lose, because he can do this again," Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., warned in his presentation Thursday.

"Impeachment is not to punish, but to prevent," said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.

Now comes Trump's defense, in what could be a single day of arguments in a trial that could even wrap on Friday or Saturday. The former president's lawyers are conceding critical facts rather than suggesting alternative ones.

They have not sought to call election results into question and say they will not defend the actions of the riotous mob that took over the Capitol Jan. 6. Where they draw the line -- and where they are asking Republicans to hold it -- is on whether Trump's actions should be punished through this particular means.

Part of their argument carries a warning on what will happen if tens of millions of voters feel disenfranchised. Trump attorney Bruce Castor employed two different metaphors earlier this week: "The floodgates will open. I was going to say, 'release the whirlwind.'"

Voting to acquit might still seem like the easier path for Republicans, given Trump's enduring appeal to GOP voters. But as Jan. 6 made clear, there are more than simple political consequences to consider.

-ABC News Political Director Rick Klein

Just hours before Donald Trump's attorneys are to launch their defense of the former president in his Senate impeachment trial, sources tell ABC News that there is growing tension within the legal team.

Sources with direct knowledge of the situation tell ABC News that Trump wants attorney Bruce Castor to have a reduced role in the presentation in favor of co-counsel David Schoen, which they say is leading to some infighting. Multiple sources close to Trump say they are hoping that Schoen takes control and wraps up the defense's presentation on Friday.

Neither Castor, Schoen or representatives of the former president immediately responded to inquiries from ABC News seeking comment.