Former President Donald Trump's legal team has released a lengthy 78-page defense ahead of tomorrow's impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
"Instead of acting to heal the nation, or at the very least focusing on prosecuting the lawbreakers who stormed the Capitol, the Speaker of the House and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the moment for their own political gain," Trump attorneys Bruce Castor Jr., David Schoen and Michael Van der Veen wrote. "In bringing this impeachment in the manner in which they did, namely via a process that violated every precedent and every principle of fairness followed in impeachment inquiries for more than 150 years, they offered the public a master’s class in the art of political opportunism."
"This was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people," they continued, urging the Senate to dismiss the case.
The new brief echos the same arguments made by the legal team in an initial defense last week. Trump's attorneys maintain the impeachment of a former president is unconstitutional and that President Trump's July 6, 2021 speech from the Ellipse in Washington D.C. was not incitement and is protected speech under the First Amendment.
"Despite going to great lengths to include irrelevant information regarding Mr. Trump’s comments dating back to August 2020 and various postings on social media, the House Managers are silent on one very chilling fact. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed that the breach at the Capitol was planned several days in advance of the rally, and therefore had nothing to do with the President’s speech on January 6th at the Ellipse. According to investigative reports all released after January 6, 2021, 'the Capitol Police, the NYPD and the FBI all had prior warning there was going to be an attack on the Capitol,'" they wrote. "Embarrassingly enough, even members of the Democratic leadership themselves have admitted on the record, albeit subsequent to January 6, 2021, that they believed the riots were pre-planned, with some, including Representative James C. Clyburn, the House Democratic Whip, going so far as to accuse fellow House Members of coordinating and planning the attack in advance as co-conspirators."
You can read the entire brief below.
Trump Impeachment Trial Memo by Katie Pavlich on Scribd