President Donald Trump speaks before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, six days after the attack on the Capitol. Photo / Gerald Herbert, AP, File
Donald Trump's lawyers deny that he played a role in inciting the deadly riot at the US Capitol and said that the Senate impeachment trial is unconstitutional.
The lawyers filed their brief before next week's trial on accusations that he provoked the January 6 siege of the Capitol through his baseless efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Earlier, House Democrats made their most detailed case yet for convicting and permanently barring the former president from office, saying Trump endangered the lives of all members of Congress when he aimed a mob of supporters "like a loaded cannon" at the Capitol.
Their brief said he bears "unmistakable" blame for actions that directly threatened the underpinnings of American democracy.
It argued he must be found guilty when his impeachment trial opens before the Senate on a charge of inciting the siege. It used evocative language to conjure the day's events, where "terrified Members were trapped in the Chamber" and called loved ones "for fear they would not survive".
"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," the Democratic managers of the impeachment case wrote.
"This is precisely the sort of constitutional offence that warrants disqualification from federal office."
The legal brief laid out for the first time the arguments House lawmakers expect to present at the impeachment trial. It not only explicitly faults him for his role in the riot but also aims to preemptively rebut defence claims that Trump's words were somehow protected by the First Amendment or that an impeachment trial is unconstitutional, or even unnecessary, now that Trump has left the White House.
It said Trump's behaviour was so egregious as to require permanent disqualification from office.
The Constitution specifies that disqualification from office can be a punishment for an impeachment conviction.
"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," the Democrats wrote.
One of Trump's attorneys, David Schoen, said on Fox News on Monday he would argue that the trial was unconstitutional, that efforts to bar Trump from office were undemocratic and that his words were protected by the First Amendment.
Democrats made clear that they disagree with all points.
"The only honourable path at that point was for President Trump to accept the results and concede his electoral defeat. Instead, he summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue," they wrote in their 77-page brief.
The Democrats drew heavily on the words of prominent Republicans who have criticised the former president. Among them are Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, who voted for Trump's impeachment and said there has never been a "greater betrayal" by a president, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said Trump "provoked" the rioters.
Still, Republicans have signaled that acquittal is likely. Many say they think Congress should move on and question the constitutionality of an impeachment trial — Trump's second — now that he has left office. In a test vote in the Senate last week, 45 Republicans, including McConnell, voted in favour of dismissing the trial over those constitutional concerns.
Though no president has been tried after departing the White House, Democrats say there is precedent, pointing to an 1876 impeachment of a secretary of war who resigned his office in a last-ditch attempt to avoid an impeachment trial. The Senate held it anyway.
The Democrats wrote that the framers of the Constitution would not have wanted to leave the country 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 leaving office. Setting that precedent now would "horrify the framers," the brief said.
"There is no 'January Exception' to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution," the Democrats wrote. "A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last."
Trump was impeached by the House while still in office, they noted, forcing a Senate trial. And there are precedents for trying former officials.
"Trump is personally responsible for a violent attack on the Capitol," they wrote. "He was impeached while still in office. The case for trying him after he has left office is stronger than any of the precedents."
The brief also traced Trump's efforts to subvert democracy back to the US summer of 2020, when he first declined to say he would accept the election results, through the election and his many failed attempts to challenge the results in court. When those efforts failed, the Democrats wrote, "he turned to improper and abusive means of staying in power", specifically by launching a pressure campaign aimed at state election officials, the Justice Department and Congress.
The Democrats cited his unsuccessful efforts to sway Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and former Attorney General William Barr. Trump then became "fixated" on January 6, the managers wrote. They note that many of his supporters, including the Proud Boys — who Trump told to "stand back and stand by" at a September debate — were already primed for violence.
"Given all that, the crowd which assembled on January 6 unsurprisingly included many who were armed, angry, and dangerous—and poised on a hair trigger for President Trump to confirm that they indeed had to "fight" to save America from an imagined conspiracy," the Democrats wrote.
- AP