Trump, Democrats lay out impeachment trial strategies

Democrats say Donald Trump endangered the lives of every member of congress by inciting the storming of the Capitol.

An eight-foot tall steel fence, topped in places with concertina razor wire, circles the US Capitol Picture: Getty Images.

Donald Trump was “singularly responsible” for the deadly US Capitol riots by aiming his frenzied supporters “like a loaded gun” towards congress, Democrat impeachment managers ­alleged on Wednesday.

In a trial brief ahead of next week’s Senate impeachment trial, Democrats say the former president endangered the lives of every member of congress and jeopardised the peaceful transfer of power by inciting the storming of the Capitol.

Mr Trump “summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue”, the brief states.

“His conduct endangered the life of every single member of congress, jeopardised the peaceful transition of power and line of succession, and compromised our national security. This is precisely the sort of constitutional offence that warrants disqualification from federal office.

“If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a joint session of congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offence, it is hard to imagine what would be.”

In the 80-page brief, Democrats rejected the argument of ­Republicans that a trial would be unconstitutional because Mr Trump has already left office.

“It is unthinkable that those same framers [of the constitution] left us virtually defenceless against a president’s treachery in his final days, allowing him to misuse power, violate his oath, and incite insurrection against congress and our electoral institutions simply because he is a lame duck. There is no ‘January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the constitution,” it says.

But the former president’s lawyers issued their own 14-page trial brief, rejecting that Mr Trump incited a crowd and stating that he was exercising his right to free speech under the First Amendment.

“It is denied that President Trump incited the crowd to engage in destructive behaviour,” the Trump brief states.

The former president “exercised his First Amendment right under the constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect.

“Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th president’s statements were accurate or not, and he therefore ­denies they were false.”

The Senate impeachment trial, which begins on February 9, is almost certain to result in Mr Trump’s acquittal because Democrats do not have the votes to reach the two-thirds majority required to convict. Mr Trump has defended his remarks before the January 6 Capitol riots as “totally appropriate”.

In their trial brief, Democrats said Mr Trump should be banned from seeing again in an elected ­office again.

“This is not a case where elections alone are a sufficient safeguard against future abuse; it is the electoral process itself that President Trump attacked and that must be protected from him and anyone else who would seek to mimic his behaviour. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a case that more clearly evokes the reasons the framers wrote a disqualification power into the constitution,” it says.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, who is presiding over the impeachment trial, walks to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill. Picture: AFP.

The brief describes in detail what unfolded inside the Capitol Building and describes how staff members and members of congress hid from the invading mob, fearing for their lives.

“Terrified members were trapped in the chamber” and calling loved ones “for fear they would not survive”, it says.

“The framers of the constitution feared a president who would corrupt his office by sparing ‘no efforts or means whatever’ to get himself re-elected. They were well aware of the danger posed by opportunists who incited mobs to violence for political gain. They drafted the constitution to avoid such thuggery, which they associated with ‘the threat of civil disorder and the early assumption of power by a dictator’,” the nine Democrat impeachment managers wrote.

Mr Trump lost his entire legal team at the weekend reportedly because they declined to argue that the election had been stolen. He replaced them on Monday with lead lawyers David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor Jr.

Mr Schoen has represented Trump ally Roger Stone, and said he was in discussions to join the legal team for Jeffrey Epstein in 2019 days before the disgraced US financier killed himself while in jail on allegations of trafficking underage girls for sex.

Mr Castor served as the district attorney for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where he declined to push forward with a case when US comedian Bill Cosby was accused of sexual ­assault by Andrea Constand.