The House of Representatives indicted former President Donald Trump in January of “incitement to insurrection” in connection with the assault on the Capitol that occurred on January 6, which resulted in five deaths and multiple injuries.
The second impeachment of Donald Trump began Tuesday in the Senate. Trump is accused of inciting his supporters to march towards the United States Capitol , where they proceeded to besiege the building and tried to persecute legislators, in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the electoral victory of 2021 from the president Joe Biden .
Trump has been claiming that the result of the elections was fraudulent, for several months.
Impeachment managers serving as prosecutors argued this week that Trump intentionally incited the violent attack on Capitol Hill on January 6.
Recently released footage showed the attack on the Capitol, including security camera clips showing members of Congress fleeing from people wielding firearms, baseball bats and riot shields after mob smashed windows, tearing down to doors and will attempt to go after specific members of Congress and former Vice President Mike Pence.
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Keys of defense
After 3 days of sessions, Trump’s defense team took only 2 hours and 32 minutes of 16 hours assigned to present oral arguments in his impeachment.
1- The trial is “unconstitutional”
The attorneys for the former president, Bruce Castor, David Schoen and Michael Van Der Veen, focused on defending Trump’s right to freedom of expression and criticized a process that they called “unconstitutional.”
To do this, they relied on a series of Edited videos, with statements from Trump and Democratic leaders, as well as images of protests in which they did not differentiate the followers of the ex-president, from protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement (the lives black matter.)
Among Trump’s defense arguments, Van Der Veen described the hundreds of protesters who entered the Capitol as “A small group that came to behave in a violent and threatening manner, who hijacked the event for their own purposes” and, in that sense, pointed out that among those arrested there was a member of the anarchist movement Antifa, which is not true.
Among the crowd gathered that day were supporters of the president, Army veterans and members of far-right organizations and the QAnon conspiracy movement.
2- Democrats accuse Trump because they hate him
A constant throughout the argument of Trump’s defense was to target Democrats as driven by “hatred.”
Van Der Veen called the process “a politically motivated witch hunt” and “an act of political revenge. unfair and flagrantly inconst itucional. ”
Another of the lawyers, Schoen, said that the Democrats have rushed to celebrate this“ impeachment ”:“ The hatred that the ‘prosecutors’ of the Lower House and others in the left they have towards President Trump has led them to avoid the basic elements of due process and legitimacy and to precipitate an impeachment through the Lower House ”, he said.
The“ impeachment ” takes place in the Senate, under Democratic control, but for the House of Representatives, with a progressive majority, to start, approved the past 13 January the accusation against Trump of “inciting the insurrection.”
3- There was no insurrection
Both the videos and the arguments of the lawyers were aimed at proving that “clearly there was no insurrection.”
“Insurrection is a specific term, defined in the law, which implies taking over a country, with a shadow government, taking over the radio stations television and have some plan on what to do when you finally have power. Clearly this is not that, “said Castor, head of the defense team.
After a brief recess, the trial entered the question and answer phase, which allowed the Senators ask written questions of both Democratic impeachment managers and Trump’s defense.
What will happen after Friday?
After the presentation of the ex-president’s lawyers The Senate is expected to meet again tomorrow, when it could vote to acquit or “convict” Trump.
In Saturday’s session, Senators serving as jurors in the trial will have four hours to ask questions of both parties: Trump’s attorneys and the nine House impeachment managers who are prosecutors in the trial .
Both parties will have two hours each to present their final arguments, after which the Senate will cast a final vote on whether cond offend or absolve Trump.
13 February, 11: 00 am ET: Questions from senators, scheduled for four hours.
11 or 16 of February: Final arguments, two hours for each part, and then vote of sanction or acquittal. A two-thirds supermajority is required to sanction.
The Senate could also vote Saturday on whether Trump is sanctioned or not, rather than extending to Sunday.
With information from EFE
