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The legal team’s initial written response to the House impeachment article against Trump, submitted to the Senate on Tuesday, focuses on questionable constitutional arguments, particularly the claim that a person who is no longer in office cannot be condemned by the Senate. (Many legal scholars disagree.) But the answer also includes defenses against some claims by Trump that are clearly not true – including the lunatics claiming he actually won the election.
The House article on impeachment accuses Trump of instigating an insurgency on Capitol Hill on Jan.6. He alleges that earlier the same day Trump gave a speech nearby in which he repeated “false claims that” we won this election, and we won it by a landslide. ‘”
The response from Trump’s attorneys Bruce L. Castor, Jr. and David Schoen? Yes, Trump has given a speech and exercised his First Amendment right to express his opinion – but if the House alleges that his opinion “that the election results were suspect” is factually inaccurate, Trump “denies this allegation.”
This is, frankly, ridiculous. Trump lost fair and square. Joe Biden was rightfully elected president. Trump’s opinion is factually inaccurate. The end.
Another part of the Trump team’s response rejects the House’s assertion that in the months leading up to January 6, Trump “repeatedly issued false statements” in which he claimed that “the election results were the product of widespread fraud “. The Trump team questions the legitimacy of the pandemic-era changes in national and local election procedures, then argues: “There is insufficient evidence for a reasonable jurist to conclude that the 45th President’s statements were correct or not, and he therefore denies that they were. false.”
This is really, really wrong. There is ample evidence that many of Trump’s specific allegations of alleged fraud are false. And Trump and his allies have completely failed, in court and elsewhere, to prove his more vague conspiracy claims that the election was “rigged” and “stolen”.
Another big lie
The Trump team’s response makes a third claim that is totally false: “It is denied that President Trump made any effort to subvert the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
To subvert can mean to overthrow, to overthrow, to undermine – and whatever definition you choose, Trump clearly tried to do it.
We don’t even have to embark on Trump’s prolonged behind-the-scenes effort to change the election outcome; he carried out much of his campaign in public. For example, on the morning of January 6, the day of the insurgency and certification, Trump tweeted that he wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify results: “States want to correct their votes, which they now know to be based on irregularities and fraud, and a corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the United States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is the moment of extreme courage! “
In his rallying speech later today, Trump again urged Pence to “come for us.” When Pence didn’t – Pence never had the constitutional authority to reject Biden’s certification of victory – Trump criticized him in a second tweet.
Trump is unlikely to face Senate sanction for continuing to spread his lies. Most of the Senate Republicans 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats appear ready to vote against his conviction, and the conviction requires the support of two-thirds of the senators present.
But that says Trump won’t even stick to the truth when it’s obvious he’s likely to win anyway.
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