Using only three of their 16 allotted hours, lawyers representing former President Donald Trump presented a quick defence to the United States (US) Senate on Friday, calling the Democrats’ charge of inciting insurrection “a preposterous and monstrous lie,” and arguing that Trump’s combative rhetoric was no different from their own.
The team, scrambled together less than a week before the trial was set to begin, deflected blame and pointed to the actions of the Democrats to make their case. Given that House impeachment managers over the last two days had focused on Trump’s aggressive political language as a driver of violence and chaos on January 6, the defence attempted to turn the tables and showed a nine-minute video of a number of Democrats—including New York’s Chuck Schumer, New Jersey’s Cory Booker, Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren, Georgia’s Raphael Warnock and New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, among others—using the word “fight” in their speeches.
Also read: US Senate Deems Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial Constitutional
“Every single one of you and every one of you, that’s okay,” defence attorney David Schoen said, speaking to Democrats. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s a word people use. But please stop the hypocrisy,” he added. Trump’s lawyers also falsely claimed that it was actually Antifa who was responsible for the deadly riots and raised baseless concerns of voter fraud in Georgia. With respect to Georgia specifically, the team also addressed Trump’s call with the secretary of state wherein he demanded the official to “find” some 11,000 votes and said that it was completely taken out of context.
“It is clear that President Trump’s comments and the use of the word ‘find’ were solely related with the inexplicable, dramatic drop in Georgia’s ballot rejection rates,” defence lawyer Bruce Castor said. Georgia state officials have simultaneously launched a criminal probe into Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results, which will look into several potential violations of state law, including “the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”
After Democrats spent two days laying out a meticulous case against the former president, the defence team’s presentation and posture showed that it was based on the assumption that they already had the votes needed for acquittal, with many GOP senators indicating that they will not convict Trump due to the belief that the trial itself is unconstitutional. During the Q&A session that followed, which gave senators the opportunity to directly question the prosecution and defence, Trump’s lawyers provided no specific details on what the former president knew about during the January 6 attack, and instead blamed the other side for not investigating the matter thoroughly before the impeachment proceedings.
Also read: Trump Impeachment Trial Day 2: House Managers Show Previously Unseen Footage From Jan. 6
Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin responded to the team saying: “Rather than yelling at us and screaming about how we didn’t have time to get all of the facts about what your client did, bring your client up here and have him testify under oath about why he was sending out tweets denouncing the vice president of the United States while the vice president was being hunted down by a mob that wanted to hang him and was chanting, in this building, ‘Hang Mike Pence!’”
Despite the Democrats scathing case against Trump, whether it will convince Republicans enough to convict him, remains to be seen. The Democrats need the support of 17 GOP senators in order to convict the former president, the vote for which is currently set for 3 PM on Saturday.