Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial begins on Tuesday in the Senate, with House impeachment managers claiming “the most grievous constitutional crime” over Trump’s incitement of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6.
The managers summarized the charge of “incitement of insurrection” in a five-page response to the 78-page brief filed by Trump’s defense team, which insisted that a former President cannot be tried for his actions.
Most legal and constitutional experts have rejected that argument, and there is precedent for the Senate hearing the cases of former US officials and judges, dating to the 1876 trial of recently-resigned Secretary of War William Belknap.
House managers wrote in their reply, “There is no ‘January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution. A President must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.”
But Trump is highly unlikely to be convicted, irrespective of the weight of evidence. On January 26, 45 of 50 GOP Senators voted to dismiss the trial. Among them was the Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell, who had said that Trump’s “lies” had “provoked” his followers into the Capitol attack.
For a Trump conviction, 17 Republican senators must join all 50 Democrats to provide the 2/3 majority.
See also World Unfiltered: Is America Broken?
McConnell and Senate Majority Chuck Schumer reached agreement on Monday on a quick trial process, possibly lasting only until next week.
Each side will have up to 16 hours to make its case. House managers, expected to support their arguments with dramatic video evidence, will then have the option of requesting a debate on vote on whether witnesses can be heard.
Trump’s attorneys have rebuffed a request that he testify.
Trump Attorneys Rework the Facts
In their brief, Trump’s defense team insisted that Trump only meant “fight in hell” in a “figurative sense” when he implored followers to march on the Capitol and prevent the Congressional confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden.
Less than two hours later, about 800 supporters — an estimated 40% of whom had been at Trump’s speech outside the White House — swept past security personnel into the Capitol. They threatened legislators and Vice President Mike Pence, who had refused Trump’s command to intervene and prevent the Biden confirmation.
See also Trump’s “Attempted Coup” as Supporters Storm Capitol
Ignoring weeks of Trump statements about a “stolen election” and his January 6 invocation to “Stop the Steal”, the attorneys wrote, “The real truth is that the people who criminally breached the Capitol did so of their own accord and for their own reasons, and they are being criminally prosecuted.”
The attorneys even presented the conspiracy theory that anti-Trump factions were among the attackers, using a blog entry from The Gateway Pundit — a right-wing conspiracy site which was banned on Twitter last weekend.
The brief also rejected the statements of multiple sources that Trump “delighted” in watching the attack and falsely said that he“took immediate steps” to “provide whatever was necessary to counteract the rioters”.
In fact, Trump rejected the request to bring in the National Guard, and Vice President Pence — sheltering in the Capitol complex — had to make the arrangement with Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. Meanwhile, Trump was assailing Pence on Twitter.
The House managers summarized in their response, “The House denies each and every allegation in the Answer that denies the acts, knowledge, intent, or wrongful conduct charged against President Trump.”
They pushed aside the Trump defense team’s claim of First Amendment rights:
This is not a case about “protected speech”. The House did not impeach President Trump because he expressed an unpopular political opinion. It impeached him because he wilfully incited violent insurrection against the Government. We live in a Nation governed by the rule of law, not mob violence incited by Presidents who cannot accept their electoral defeat.
