Donald Trump’s supporters in front of The Capitol, January 6, 2021 (Leah Millis/Reuters)

UPDATE, FEB 12:

House impeachment managers wrap up their case against Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection, quoting Trump supporters who said he sent them to attack the US Capitol on January 6.

Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado spoke about enduring the attack, fleeing to safety as a SWAT team pointed guns at the rioting Trump followers. She wondered, “Who sent them there?”

The managers quoted invaders, such as Texas real estate agent Jennifer Ryan, who took a private jet to Washington to prevent the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden:

I thought I was following my President….He asked us to fly there, he asked us to be there, so I was doing what he asked us to do….

President Trump requested that we be in D.C. on the 6th, so this was our way of going and stopping the steal.

One Trump follower responded to Biden’s call for a cessation of the attack: “Does he not realize President Trump called us to siege the place?”

The managers emphasized that Trump never apologized for the assault, placing his behavior in a pattern excusing and encouraging violence, such as the white supremacist marches in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 and the invasion of the Michigan Capitol in spring 2020.

Rep. Ted Lieu of California summarized:

President Trump’s lack of remorse and refusal to take accountability during the attack shows his state of mind. It shows that he intended the events of Jan. 6 to happen. And when it did, he delighted in it.

The lead impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, appealed to the 44 Republicans who twice voted to dismiss the trial before it began:

Is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he’s ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?

Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that? Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that?

But conviction, requiring 67 of 100 Senators to vote Yes, appeared distant. Trump defenders avoided the substance of the case by objecting to the process.

Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said:

My view is unchanged as to whether or not we have the authority to do this, and I’m certainly not bound by the fact that 56 people think we do. I get to cast my vote, and my view is that you can’t impeach a former president. And if the former president did things that were illegal, there is a process to go through for that.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida echoed, “The fundamental question for me, and I don’t know about for everybody else, is whether an impeachment trial is appropriate for someone who is no longer in office. I don’t believe that it is.”

And Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma grumbled, “To me, they’re losing credibility the longer they talk.”

Their views were in sharp contrast to the handful of Republicans who have backed conduct of the trial to assess if Trump should be punished for incitement of the attack.

Trump’s lawyers begin their defense on Friday afternoon. Trump advisor Jason Miller said attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen will conclude by Friday night, setting up a weekend vote by the Senate.

After the Senate trial adjourned Thursday, Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah, and Ted Cruz of Texas defied their oath to be “impartial jurors” to confer with Castor and Schoen.

Schoen told reporters the senators, whom he called “friendly guys”, were just “talking about procedure”

And then just talking about where they’re from and all that, but it’s just very nice. I said to them it was a great honor to have the opportunity to talk to them.

ORIGINAL ENTRY, FEB 11: Donald Trump’s impeachment trial opens with a detailed account of his efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election and the violence of the attack on the US Capitol which he is accused of inciting.

House impeachment managers presented new, graphic footage of the attack and its threat to the legislators and Vice President Mike Pence, gathered to certify President-elect Joe Biden.

The chambers was filled with the profanities and screams of the attackers and the images of police officers beaten and wounded. There were a series of occasions in which Pence and the lawmakers were only feet away from the raging Trump supporters looking for them.

Audios replayed police shouting, “We’ve lost the line.” Video from body and security cameras showed an officer assaulted with poles and fists, and the Vice President and his family evacuated as the invaders shouted, “Hang Mike Pence!”

Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, hailed for his diversion of the mob away from legislators, turned around Sen. Mitt Romney just before he encountered the Trump supporters.

One invader shouted over and over, “Nancy! Oh, Nancy! Where are you, Nancy?”, in the search for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A second was seen in her office, legs up on her desk with a powerful taser, while a third wrote of the quest to shoot her in the “friggin’ brain”.

The footage was accompanied by an account of Trump’s disinformation and lies, back to July 2020, setting up the call to action over a “rigged” and “stolen” election.

Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland summarized Trump’s speech outside the White House on January 6, less than two hours before the attack: “He told them to ‘fight like hell’, and they brought us hell on that day.”

Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado narrated, “With his back against the wall, when all else has failed, he turns back to his supporters — who he’d already spent months telling that the election was stolen — and he amplified it further.”

The managers also recounted Trump’s pressure on legislators in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia to dismiss the outcome and name his electors instead of Biden’s. They outlined his three phone calls to high-level officials in Georgia, including Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes” for him to overtake Biden.

On Tuesday, Georgia State prosecutors said they are opening an investigation into the calls, which may constitute criminal obstruction of justice.

Revealed: 3rd Trump Phone Call to Georgia Officials to Overturn Election

The managers also set out Trump’s efforts for the Justice Department to declare the election fraudulent, including an initiative to replace the Acting Attorney General. They documented his intimidation of Pence to exceed his Constitutional powers and prevent the certification of Biden, an attempt rejected by the Vice President all the way to January 6.

Displaying Trump’s tweets that cheered on armed and violent supporters, Neguse said:

When he saw firsthand the violence that his conduct was creating, he didn’t stop it. He didn’t condemn the violence. He incited it further and he got more specific. He didn’t just tell them to fight like hell. He told them how, where and when.

Trump Defenders: Trial is “Complete Waste of Time”

Sen. Romney, who watched intently at the footage of his near-miss with the attackers, said later, “It tears at your heart and brings tears to your eyes. That was overwhelmingly distressing and emotional.”

Even some of the 44 Republicans who have voted to dismiss the trial, ruling it unconstitutional, gave credit. The second-ranking Republican, Sen. John Thune said the managers had “done a good job connecting the dots” in a “harsh reminder of what happens when you let something like that get out of hand”.

But it is still close to impossible that 17 Republicans will join the 50 Democrats for the 2/3 majority to convict Trump.

Trump;s defenders maintained that the responsibility was only with the rioters. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, one of six who voted after the Capitol attack to block Biden’s certification, said, “Today’s presentation was powerful and emotional, reliving a terrorist attack on our nation’s capital. But there was very little said about how specific conduct of the president satisfies the legal standard.”

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said the trial is a “complete waste of time”. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina swept aside any prospect of conviction, “I think you get at best six Republicans, probably five and maybe six.”

They defied the summary of Rep. Stacey Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands: “That was a mob sent by the president of the United States to stop the certification of an election. President Trump put a target on their backs, and his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down.”

The managers recounted how Trump, during the attack, tweeted to praise his supporters and to denigrate Pence — one message coming only two minutes before the Vice President and his family were being evacuated by security personnel. They noted that he refused to issue the order deploying the National Guard.

“When the violence started, he never once said the one thing everyone around him was begging him to say,” Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas said. “‘Stop the attack.’”