Donald Trump’s lawmakers will begin defending the former president Friday in a U.S. Senate lawsuit over his tenure in the Jan. 6 uprising on the U.S. Capitol, an attempt to oust Trump away from the horrific attack.
After Democratic prosecutors – known as impeachment managers – spent days setting a detailed case for why Trump committed accessible crimes, Trump lawyers have said they intend to show a brief defense.
The lawyers are likely to try to divert responsibility from the former president to direct those who laid siege to the Capitol. They also intend to argue that his speech at that day’s assembly was defended by the first amendment. Trump’s lawyers seem to frame the impeachment lawsuit as a speedy attempt without a proper process driven by the personal vitality of Democrats, according to the Associated Press.
“They have not affiliated in any way with Trump,” David Schoen, one of Trump’s lawyers, told reporters Thursday. “They don’t have to show you films to show you that the riots happened here. Let’s face it, and you know about it. “
But Democrats spent hours earlier in the week showing just how the people who attacked the Capitol believed they were acting on behalf of Trump. They played several videos in which the terrorists shouted at the police that Trump had invited them there, and cited several court documents in which protesters accused of crime have allegedly been working at Trump’s will.
Jamie Raskin, the House Democratic chief prosecutor, addressed the claim that Trump’s statements were defended by the first amendment earlier in the week, saying it was “unusual”. As long as a private citizen can persuade the government, Raskin said, the president of the United States, who takes an oath to defend the country against all enemies, cannot do the same.
“If you’re the president of the United States, you’ve chosen a side with your oath of office,” Raskin, a longtime professor of constitutional law, said earlier in the week. “And if you break it, we can impeach, condemn, remove and permanently disqualify from holding any position of honor, trust or profit under the United States.”
While the Trump team has 16 hours to make their case, they plan to use just three or four hours to do so, Schoen told reporters Thursday. Republicans want to end the lawsuit swiftly, according to Axios, after Democrats filed strong allegations with harrowing videos.
Trump’s lawyers will go into their arguments knowing that 17 Republicans would have to vote to find Trump guilty in order to condemn him. It is very likely that as many Republicans would vote against the former president, increasing his chances of being liberated.
Trump’s team can also go back to the argument that Trump cannot be introduced because he is no longer in office. A majority of senators – including six Republicans – rejected the argument after hours of debate over the issue on Tuesday.
Friday is the first time Trump lawyers will argue in the lawsuit since Tuesday’s rocky opening. Bruce Castor, a Pennsylvania prosecutor who served as one of Trump’s lawmakers, gave crooked opening remarks that were hard to follow, an accomplishment that was believed to have upset Trump.
Depending on when the arguments end, there could be a vote in the trial as soon as Saturday.