BY CHRIS FUSCO
Chicago Sun-Times Staff Reporter
CHICAGO--The next step in the impeachment of Gov. Blagojevich is a trial in the Senate on whether he should be thrown out of office for corruption and abuse of power.
Here's what the trial will look like, according to details outlined this morning by the state Senate impeachment rules committee:
• The trial will formally begin on Wednesday after the Senate is seated for the next legislative session, but no substantive developments are expected that day.
Blagojevich will be served notice of the trial at up to three locations: his Springfield office, his Chicago office and his Northwest Side home.
Senators will take an oath that they will judge Blagojevich fairly.
• The next date in the trial is set for Monday Jan. 26, when proceedings will begin. The chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court will preside over the trial. A prosecutor to be selected by the Illinois House will present the House's impeachment case. Blagojevich's lawyers will have an opportunity to respond.
Details about potential witnesses, motions and timelines for when responses are due are still being formulated.
• Deliberations are set to take place in public ‹ unlike the rules that governed President Clinton's impeachment trial. The only way elements of the trial can be closed to the public is by a two-thirds vote of the 59-member senate. That is not anticipated.
• Senators effectively are serving as judges in the trial, so they'll have opportunities to vote on what evidence and witnesses are allowed.
• Senators are grappling with the issue of what to do if Blagojevich or the House prosecutor wants to call some of them as witnesses. A movement appears to be afoot to allow them to testify.
• Forty votes are needed to remove the governor from office.
Lynn Sweet is a columnist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the 
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