![Inside the Senate chamber: Sketches of senators and empty desks during Day 3 of the impeachment trial](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210211154046-03-impeachment-trial-2021-sketch-0211-super-tease.jpg)
Inside the Senate chamber: Sketches of senators and empty desks during Day 3 of the impeachment trial
CNN
The energy level in the Senate was reserved Thursday as the House managers wrapped up their second full day of arguments in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
CNN's Manu Raju reported at least 15 empty desks on the Republican side at one point. During Trump's first impeachment trial, senators were required to sit at their desk during the lengthy arguments, though they didn't always do so. This time, senators aren't required to remain at their desks due to the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing, but most have for the trial.![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20240725164452.jpg)
A Justice Department watchdog has found that former Attorney General Bill Barr was personally involved in the decision to publicize an incident from the 2020 election – nine mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being discarded in a dumpster in Pennsylvania – that flamed the false narrative of widespread voter fraud.
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President Joe Biden is expected to be as forceful as he has ever been in urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire agreement when the two leaders meet privately at the White House Thursday afternoon, sources tell CNN, as US officials believe that a deal may be on the cusp.