Former President Donald Trump’s defense team is laying out their defense ahead of the Senate’s impeachment trial and arguing the effort is unconstitutional.
In a filing on Tuesday, Trump’s attorneys David Schoen and Bruce Castor denied that the former president incited an insurrection on January 6 as they wrote, “It is denied that the 45th President engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”
They also denied that Trump “ever engaged in a violation of his oath of office.”
“To the contrary, at all times Donald J. Trump fully and faithfully executed his duties as the president of the United States and at all times acted to the best of his ability to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States while never engaging in any high crimes or misdemeanors,” they added.
While lawmakers have pointed to Trump’s comments at a rally before a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, his lawyers are claiming that he “exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect.”
Additionally, they denied Trump’s speech “had anything to do with the action at the Capitol as it was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general.”
The attorneys also disputed the claim that Trump made “any effort to subvert the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
Read the brief below:
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— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) February 2, 2021
The 45th President's Answer to Article of Impeachment: pic.twitter.com/SWm1h0PQk3
Finally, the lawyers claimed that the Senate “lacks jurisdiction” to hold an impeachment trial because Trump “holds no public office from which he can be removed.”
Instead, they argued that “should the Senate act” on the impeachment article, the chamber “will have passed a Bill of Attainder in violation” of the Constitution.
The defense team asked that senators dismiss the impeachment article against him “as moot, and thus in violation of the Constitution because the Senate lacks jurisdiction to remove from office a man who does not office.”
Alternatively, they asked the senators to vote to acquit Trump.
House Democrats’ impeachment managers filed a brief on Tuesday as they made their case for the Senate to convict Trump based on what they say is the “overwhelming” evidence that he incited the violence.
“President Trump summoned, assembled and incited a violent mob that attacked the Capitol, cost the lives of three police officers and four other people, threatened the Vice-President and Congress, and successfully halted the counting of the Electoral College vote,” the lawmakers wrote.
Finally, they argued, “We must protect the Republic from any future dangerous attacks he could level against our constitutional order.”
To convict the former president on the charge of “incitement of insurrection,” at least 67 senators would need to vote in favor.
There is currently a 50-50 split in the Senate, and it is seen as “extraordinarily unlikely” that 17 Republicans would break with the party and convict Trump.
Forty-five out of 50 Senate Republicans voted to declare the trial unconstitutional, as IJR reported.
The trial is set to begin the week of February 9.
