WASHINGTON (AP) – After an accusation case based on emotional and violent images of the siege of the Capitol, Donald Trump’s impeachment trial shifts on Friday to defense lawyers prepared to make a fundamental concession: the violence was as traumatic, unacceptable and illegal as the Democrats say.
But, they will say, Trump did not order it.
Recognizing the horrors of January aims to soften the visceral impact of the House Democrats case and quickly turn to what Trump supporters see as the central – and most viable – question of the trial: whether Trump can be held responsible for inciting the riot mortal of January 6.
The argument is likely to attract Republican senators who want to be seen as condemning violence, but without condemning the president.
“They didn’t call Trump at all,” David Schoen, one of the president’s lawyers, told reporters near the end of two full days of Democrats’ arguments in order to do just that.
He predicted the essence of his argument on Tuesday, telling Senate jurors: “They don’t have to show films to show that the riot happened here. Let’s say it happened and you know all about it. “
In both lawsuits and discussions this week, Trump’s lawyers have made clear their position that the people responsible for the rebellion are the ones who actually broke into the building and are now being sued by the Department of Justice.
Anticipating defense efforts to separate Trump’s rhetoric from the actions of rioters, impeachment managers spent days trying to merge them through a reconstruction of never-before-seen video images alongside clips of the president’s months of months asking his supporters to undo the election results.
Democrats, who concluded their case on Thursday, used the videos and words of the Jan. 6 protesters themselves to try to place the blame on Trump. “We were invited here,” said an attacker on Capitol Hill. “Trump sent us,” said another. “He will be happy. We are fighting for Trump. “
The prosecutors’ goal was to launch Trump not as a spectator, but as the “chief instigator” who spread electoral falsehoods, so he encouraged his supporters to come and challenge the results in Washington and fueled discontent with rhetoric about fighting and retaking the country.
Democrats also demand that he be prevented from holding a future federal office.
“This attack would never have happened if it weren’t for Donald Trump,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, one of the impeachment managers, as he swallowed the emotion. “And then they came, wrapped in the Trump flag, and used our flag, the American flag, to strike and beat.”
Despite all the significance that a president’s impeachment is meant to convey, this second historic Trump trial could end with a vote this weekend, especially as Trump’s lawyers focused on legal rather than emotional or historical issues and hope to get everything. behind him as soon as possible.
With little hope of condemnation by the necessary two-thirds of the Senate, Democrats delivered a graphic case to the American public, describing in personal and clear terms the terror faced that day – part of it in the very Senate chamber where senators are sitting as jurors. They used security videos of protesters threateningly searching for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, crashing into the building and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the police.
They displayed the many public and explicit instructions that Trump gave to his supporters – long before the White House rally that unleashed the deadly attack on the Capitol, while Congress certified Democratic Joe Biden’s victory. Five people died in the chaos and its aftermath.
“What makes you think that the nightmare with Donald Trump and his violent and violating mob is over?” asked deputy Jamie Raskin, D-Md., The main prosecutor. He said earlier, “When Donald Trump said to the crowd, as he did on January 6, ‘Fight like hell, or you won’t have a country anymore’, he wanted them to ‘fight like hell’.”
At the White House, Biden said he believed “some minds can change” after the senators saw the security video, although he had already admitted that the conviction was unlikely. On Thursday, many seemed prepared to move on.
“I thought today was really repetitive, actually. I mean, there’s not much news. I was really disappointed that they didn’t commit to legal standards too much, ”said Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri.
Several Republican senators, including Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, spoke on Thursday with Trump’s lawyers. Cruz told reporters that the senators were discussing legal strategies – something that would never be allowed in a criminal case. There is no rule against Senate jurors plotting strategies with lawyers in an impeachment trial, although Democrats can use it to raise questions about fairness.
The presentation of Trump’s lawyers is low-risk in a sense, given the likelihood of acquittal. But he is also being watched closely because of an irregular performance on Tuesday, when a defense lawyer, Bruce Castor, gave arguments so devious that Trump left his Florida home furious.
They must highlight different parts of the same prosecutors-focused speech when Trump told supporters gathered at Ellipse outside the White House to “fight like hell”.
They will argue that Trump, in the same speech, encouraged the crowd to behave “peacefully” and that his comments – and his general distrust of the election results – are all protected by the First Amendment. Democrats strongly resist this claim, saying their words were not a political speech, but a direct incitement to violence.
Defense lawyers are also expected to return to the arguments presented on Tuesday that the trial itself is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office. The Senate rejected this restraint on Tuesday by voting to continue the trial, but Republican senators signaled that they remain interested in the argument.
On Thursday, the senators seated for a second full day of discussions looked rather tired, hunched over in their chairs, crossing their arms and walking to stretch.
One Republican, Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, said during a break, “For me, they are losing credibility the more they talk.”
Republican Senator Marco Rubio said the facts of January 6, although “anti-patriotic” and even “traitors”, were not his main concern. Instead, he said on Thursday, an impeachment trial for someone who is no longer in office “sets a very dangerous precedent.”