WASHINGTON — House Democrats delivered the impeachment case against Donald Trump to the Senate late Monday for the start of his historic trial, but Republican senators were easing off their criticism of the former president and shunning calls to convict him over the deadly Jan. 6 siege at the U.S. Capitol.

It’s an early sign of Trump’s enduring sway over the party.

The nine House prosecutors carried the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” across the Capitol, making a solemn and ceremonial march to the Senate along the same halls the rioters ransacked weeks ago. But Republican denunciations of Trump have cooled since the riot. Instead Republicans are presenting legal arguments against the legitimacy of the trial and questions of whether Trump’s repeated demands to overturn Joe Biden’s election really amounted to incitement.