Trump lawyers portray impeachment trial as Democratic witch hunt

By David Morgan and Richard Cowan

 

David Schoen, defense attorney for former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to a reporter as he traverses the underground subway system during Day Three of Trump's impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. February 11, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump's lawyers on Friday said Democrats had provided no evidence the former president incited last month's deadly U.S. Capitol riot and had used his second impeachment trial to settle political scores.

 

Trump is on trial in the U.S. Senate on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection by his supporters who stormed the seat of Congress in Washington to stop lawmakers from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden's election victory, resulting in the deaths of five people including a police officer.

 

Trump's lawyers argued that his remarks, including a fiery speech that day urging supporters to "fight like hell" to stop the election certification, were protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which ensures the right to free speech.

 

"This trial is about far more than President Trump. It is about silencing and banning the speech the majority does not agree with," said Bruce Castor, one of Trump's lawyers. "I urge you instead to look to the principles of free expression and free speech."

 

In arguments this week, Democratic members of the House of Representatives said Trump had set the stage for the violence by falsely claiming the election results were fraudulent and egging on his supporters with fiery rhetoric.

 

The Democrats are unlikely to gain a conviction though as few Republican senators have come out against Trump. The trial could end as early as Saturday.

 

Trump's team played a roughly 10-minute video showing prominent Democrats including Vice President Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other party officials using the word "fight" in political speeches.

 

"You didn't do anything wrong," Trump lawyer David Schoen said, addressing Democrats. "It's a word people use, but please stop the hypocrisy."

 

Trump's defense team also portrayed the impeachment trial as little more than the result of a political witch hunt by Democrats who had been trying to get Trump for four years.

 

Democrats were unimpressed by the presentation on Friday.

 

"It fails to pass the red-face test. It's aimed at mainly a jury of one - Donald Trump." Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters.

 

The defense case followed two days of presentations by the nine House Democrats serving as prosecutors.

 

They showed videos of the Republican former president cheering violence at his rallies, repeating his election fraud claims and urging his supporters to gather in Washington on Jan. 6 for a rally he said would be "wild."

 

The House impeachment managers argued that Trump planted the seeds for the riot by encouraging violence and making false claims about widespread electoral fraud long before Jan. 6.

 

In response to a question, Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro, one of the House impeachment managers, said on Friday that Trump had summoned the mob to Washington, given the crowd its marching orders and then did nothing to stop the violence that ensued.

 

"This violent bloody insurrection that occurred on Jan. 6 would not have occurred but for President Trump." Castro said. "That mob didn't come out of thin air" and there was nothing random about the attack.

 

CONVICTION UNLIKELY

 

The Democratic-controlled House charged Trump on Jan. 13 with inciting the insurrection, but Democrats are unlikely to get a conviction in the evenly-divided Senate or to bar Trump from running for office again.

 

Conviction requires a two-thirds majority in the 100-member Senate, which means at least 17 Republicans would have to defy Trump despite his continued popularity among Republican voters.

 

"I'm anxious to see what my Republican friends do," Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday.

 

Michael van der Veen, another Trump lawyer, said there was a double standard at the heart of the prosecution's case, arguing that some Democrats had "encouraged and endorsed" the violence that erupted at some anti-racism protests across the United States last summer without facing any legal consequences.

 

"They have clearly demonstrated that their opposition to mobs and their view of using the National Guard depends upon their political views," said van der Veen, a last-minute addition to the defense team who sued Trump in August in a lawsuit that accused him of making repeated claims about fraud in mail-in voting without evidence.

 

On Tuesday, the Senate voted largely along party lines that the impeachment trial was constitutional and even though Trump's term ended on Jan. 20. Six Republican senators sided with Democrats.

 

If Trump is acquitted, the Senate could decide to censure him or even vote to bar him from holding public office again. Asked on Thursday about pursuing the latter option, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that decision would have to wait until the end of the trial.

 

Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, indicated that a censure motion could be in the cards.

 

"I've seen a couple of resolutions at least that I think could attract some support," Thune told reporters. He added that he did not think an effort to bar Trump from holding office again under the 14th Amendment would go anywhere.

 

Neither side has so far announced an intention to call witnesses, leaving senators on track for final arguments and a vote as soon as Saturday.

 

Trump is the first U.S. president to be impeached twice and the first to face trial after leaving office. His first impeachment trial, which stemmed from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden, ended in an acquittal a year ago in what was then a Republican-controlled Senate.

 

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell, Richard Cowan, David Morgan, Karen Freifeld and Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert; Writing by Paul Simao; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-13

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

How can you defend the indefensible simple you can’t weak as weak can be just like the republican senators that need to grow a spine and convict this conman oh well we will get their names on record as to beeing cowardly to stand up for their country 

Seems more like a duck shoot than a witch hunt...

Is any of this a surprise? Let me say this now - anyone who finds the obviously coming acquittal a victory is celebrating a traitor to the country and an attack on democracy.

OMG! They actually played "The Hillary Card" asking if they nail the former president couldn't they then go after her?

Just echo's the sad state America has been left in after four chaotic years of Trump!

In the first impeachment, the (R)s argued that rather than convict, "Let the American people decide".

 

On 3 November 2020, the American people did exactly that....drubbing 45 in the worst loss by an (R) incumbent ever.....and it only made it worse.

 

It launched the entire lie about 'fraud', where they was none, and that lie led directly to the terrorist putsch on 6 January

 

What's the (R) excuse this time?

4 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

In the first impeachment, the (R)s argued that rather than convict, "Let the American people decide".

 

On 3 November 2020, the American people did exactly that....drubbing 45 in the worst loss by an (R) incumbent ever.....and it only made it worse.

 

It launched the entire lie about 'fraud', where they was none, and that lie led directly to the terrorist putsch on 6 January

 

What's the (R) excuse this time?

They're using lies and misdirection. You know, just like supporters we all know:

 

Deny, Ignore, Lie, Deflect, Obfuscate

Trump lawyers had the easiest job ever. Pretend to do something so that GOP senators pretend to have a reason to vote Trump is innocent. The GOP senators all know he is guilty and they decided long before the defense started that they won't do what is right.

 

And America still wants to tell the rest of the world that they are the best democracy in this world. What a bad joke.

 

 

2 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Trump lawyers had the easiest job ever. Pretend to do something so that GOP senators pretend to have a reason to vote Trump is innocent. The GOP senators all know he is guilty and they decided long before the defense started that they won't do what is right.  (I added emphasis)

<snip>

 

Very sad statement:

 

"Most GOP Senators Would Convict Trump Via Secret Ballot, Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono Says"

 

Most GOP Senators Would Convict Trump Via Secret Ballot, Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono Says (newsweek.com)

Latest info re 45's actions on 6 January:

 

In a call from House Minority Leader McCarthy to 45, McCarthy pleaded with 45 to do something...call off the terrorists or send in the National Guard. 45 answered:

 

"Well Kevin, I guess they're more upset about the election than you".

 

McCarthy responded: "Who the f... do you think you're talking to!"

 

45 did nothing for several hours, despite the pleas from fearful Congresspeople.

 

The details of the call were released by.....Republicans, so if this is a "witch hunt", it's a bipartisan hunt with the witch in full view.

 

The details of the call do two things:  they indicate (using the famous Howard Baker line) what 45 knew and when he knew it.  It also shows his intent, his mindset.

Can you imagine how the outcome of the Nuremberg trials would have been different if half the jury had been made up of sympathizers?

New details about Trump-McCarthy shouting match show Trump refused to call off the rioters

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/12/politics/trump-mccarthy-shouting-match-details/index.html

 

In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did.

 

"Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are," Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy. 

Some Members here refer to the tweet where he asked the attackers to go home. Which we know was done due to pressure from his aides.

 

From that CNN article.

 

Quote

At Trump's impeachment trial Friday, his lawyers argued that Trump did in fact try to calm the rioters with a series of tweets while the attack unfolded. But his lawyers cherry-picked his tweets, focusing on his request for supporters to "remain peaceful" without mentioning that he also attacked then-Vice President Mike Pence and waited hours to explicitly urge rioters to leave the Capitol.

 

Because it is.

Where's Rudy then, I don't see him in the OP picture ?

The sooner they get thru this the sooner the miscreant can be consigned to the dustbin of history.

 

No more twitters,no more parler...just the ever increasing indifference of irrelevance.

2 hours ago, J Town said:

OMG! They actually played "The Hillary Card" asking if they nail the former president couldn't they then go after her?

 

Been there, done that...

 

Marco Rubio
@marcorubio
·
Jun 28, 2016
The House Select Cmte report on Benghazi tells us what we already know - Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being Commander in Chief.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Trump's team played a roughly 10-minute video showing prominent Democrats including Vice President Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other party officials using the word "fight" in political speeches.

 

But, what was the context and the circumstances that these other speakers were in?  How was it different from yet another Trump rally?  

 

Trump told his listeners that their vote was stolen thus they were supposedly disenfranchised and ineffectual, so they needed to "fight like hell" to stop a "stolen election."  He said he would go with them to the Capitol, but instead took cover.  

 

Trump had already seen the affect his own rallies had, so what did he expect?  And, like I have said in another thread, the Commander-in-Chief was very slow in responding to the assault on the Capitol.  

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

the Senate could decide to censure him or even vote to bar him from holding public office again.

Can someone please enlighten me? Does either of the above require a simple majority or 2/3 of the Senate?

1 hour ago, Walker88 said:

What's the (R) excuse this time?

We don't want to upset the 70 plus million morons who voted for Trump, we will need them in the future as we (R )  are in a desperate position and Trump decimated our integrity!

 

 

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

This trial is about far more than President Trump.

Yes, it's about the integrity of the Republican Party and thus far, you are failing miserably!

1 hour ago, J Town said:

Can you imagine how the outcome of the Nuremberg trials would have been different if half the jury had been made up of sympathizers?

In this case co-conspirator's are also on the jury.

The last 4 years has been a democratic witch hunt, 'healing' the country with yet another impeachment is just the latest vindictive hypocritical attack.

1 hour ago, ExpatOK said:

Because it is.

 

No, it's a traitor hunt, and 45 is the traitor.  About that there is no doubt.

 

-45 DELIBERATELY changed the date for his terrorist base to meet to 6 Jan, the day of the vote certification in Congress

-45 maintained the lie of 'fraud' even from before the election and all the way until legitimate and fairly elected President Biden took office

-45 speech was absolutely intended to send the terrorist mob to the Capitol

-45 knew the mob was carrying weapons like baseball bats...45 isn't blind, he saw what they had

-45, seeing how riled and armed his mob was, knew full well they would be violent

-45 used 'fight' 377 times in his speech, according to the House Managers

-45 refused to call off the mob even after they broke into the Capitol...it was LIVE on TV

-45 Tweeted disparaging comments about Pence knowing Pence was under threat (according to Sen tuberville and his call to 45)

-45 refused House Minority Leader McCarthy's plea for help, both calling off the mob and calling out the National Guard, even TWO HOURS into the terrorist attack

 

Those are the FACTS.

 

45 is a traitor to the US.

54 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Been there, done that...

 

Marco Rubio
@marcorubio
·
Jun 28, 2016
The House Select Cmte report on Benghazi tells us what we already know - Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being Commander in Chief.

But they brought it back up today in a pointed question. SHE never fades away completely, does she?

3 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

The last 4 years has been a democratic witch hunt, 'healing' the country with yet another impeachment is just the latest vindictive hypocritical attack.

Yes it's hypocritical to use lawful means against unlawful acts and then complain about violent, deadly insurrection against democracy and the peoples vote!

The leader of the violence should just be left unpunished to continue his civil war and let matters "heal". 

50 minutes ago, mrfill said:

Can someone please enlighten me? Does either of the above require a simple majority or 2/3 of the Senate?

It takes 2/3 for a conviction in this trial. If they decide to go with a censure after this sham, then a simple 51 votes would ensure he never runs for office again.

Just now, J Town said:

It takes 2/3 for a conviction in this trial. If they decide to go with a censure after this sham, then a simple 51 votes would ensure he never runs for office again.

Thanks

16 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

The last 4 years has been a democratic witch hunt, 'healing' the country with yet another impeachment is just the latest vindictive hypocritical attack.

The electorate agreed that it was no witch hunt and voted him out.