TRUTH OR HAIR
Team Trump pushes same old lies as 2nd impeach trial begins today
Donald Trump should not be held responsible for last month’s deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol because he was speaking “in the figurative sense” when he called on the attackers to “fight like hell,” the former president’s lawyers claimed Monday in their final written defense before the start of his historic second impeachment trial.
With opening arguments in Trump’s trial slated to begin Tuesday in the Senate, the Trump lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce Castor, made the semantical argument against conviction in a 75-page memorandum that also slammed the Democratic impeachment case as “patently absurd.”
“Mr. Trump used the word ‘fight’ a little more than a handful of times and each time in the figurative sense that has long been accepted in public discourse when urging people to stand and use their voices to be heard on matters important to them,” Schoen and Castor wrote of the speech the ex-president delivered outside the White House on Jan. 6 ahead of the bloody attack on the Capitol. “It was not and could not be construed to encourage acts of violence.”
But the nine House impeachment managers, who will make the case for conviction at Trump’s trial, slammed Schoen and Castor for failing to mention that the former president spent months leading up to Jan. 6 spreading false claims about the election being “stolen” from him.
“When President Trump demanded that the armed, angry crowd at his Save America Rally ‘fight like hell’ or ‘you’re not going to have a country anymore,’ he wasn’t urging them to form political action committees about ‘election security in general,’ ” the managers, led by Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, wrote in a response to the memo, quoting from the most incendiary portion of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech.
The managers added, “His incitement of insurrection against the United States government — which disrupted the peaceful transfer of power — is the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president.”
Beyond semantics, Schoen and Castor claimed the impeachment trial should be dismissed off the bat because the Senate “lacks jurisdiction” to try former occupants of the Oval Office.
Even if Trump is on trial, the attorneys continued, his preriot speech can’t be considered the spark that lit the flame because “the event fell well within the norms of political speech that is protected by the First Amendment.”
Trying to flip the script, Castor and Schoen said the true “danger to our republic” lies in “Democrats’ fevered hatred for Citizen Trump” and “hunger for political theater.”
The House managers rebutted the constitutionality defense as well, noting there is precedent for the Senate trying former government officials — most notably William Belknap, the war secretary to President Ulysses Grant, who faced impeachment trial in 1876 after resigning in disgrace amid corruption allegations.
“He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions. And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing,” the managers wrote of Trump.
The dueling memos came as senators prepared to kick off the trial Tuesday with a debate and vote on the constitutionality question. The Senate can put the issue to bed with a simple majority vote, which it is expected to do.
The House managers are then set to spend Wednesday and Thursday laying out their case for convicting Trump of one count of “incitement of insurrection,” according to a trial resolution unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
A senior Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Daily News that the managers will make their arguments with “reliance on video content,” an apparent reference to the troves of footage that have surfaced of the Capitol riot.
The trial will continue Friday with defense arguments from Schoen and Castor, according to the resolution.
However, the proceeding will end by 5 p.m. Friday to accommodate Schoen’s request for the trial to pause for the Jewish Sabbath. It will then resume on Sunday afternoon with defense arguments, the resolution says.
Once arguments are wrapped up, senators will be given a chance to ask questions of both sides.
Afterward, the Senate will consider whether to subpoena any witnesses or other evidence before a final vote on conviction, Schumer’s resolution said.
House managers want Trump to testify, though he rejected a voluntary request to do so last week. A simple Senate majority is required to authorize any subpoenas for testimony.
A two-thirds majority vote would be required to ultimately convict Trump, meaning at least 17 Republicans would have to join all of the Senate’s 50 Democrats. If Trump is convicted, a simple majority of senators could then vote to bar him from ever holding or running for office again — the main goal for the Democrats.