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WASHINGTON – Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are refuting arguments made by House impeachment officials as they in turn take arguments on the fourth day of his trial.
“The impeachment article currently before the Senate is an unjust and patently unconstitutional act of political revenge,” lawyer Michael van der Veen told the chamber in his opening speech.
“This appalling abuse of the Constitution only further divides our country when we should try to unite around common priorities,” he continued.
“Like any other politically motivated witch hunt the left has engaged in over the past four years, this impeachment is completely separate from the facts,” van der Veen said, before playing a blunt cut from Democratic lawmakers. opposing Trump’s election victory in 2016..
He maintains that the impeachment “constitutes a serious threat to the freedom of expression of political leaders of both parties, at all levels”.
“The Senate should be extremely careful about the precedent this case will set,” Van Der Veen said.
The former president’s defense team have 4 hours to make their case, but lead impeachment attorney David Shoen said they would likely only use three to four hours to present their arguments.
That means a vote on whether to convict or acquit the former president could take place as early as Saturday night if the chamber moves forward with the question-and-answer portion later on Friday.
Many Republican lawmakers were not moved by the two days of arguments made by House prosecutors, which relied on dramatic and never-before-seen footage to show how close the rioters were to lawmakers when they stormed the Capitol on January 6.
GOP senators said impeachment officials had failed to persuade them to condemn Trump for inciting insurgency, suggesting Democrats would almost certainly fail to get the 67 votes they had. need to condemn.
The president’s legal team is expected to argue that Trump is innocent of the charge of instigating an insurgency and that Democrats have stood idly by as some of their own leaders called for violence against Tories for throughout the Trump administration and during the unrest of last summer.
“I think you’ll at least be moved by what you see and get a much better picture of what’s going on,” Schoen told Fox News in a preview of their arguments, adding that he would lay out “the hypocrisy ”of those responsible for the indictment.
“Everyone in this room and in the House will look bad,” he continued. “Our politicians will look bad if this goes ahead and that is a very unfortunate thing.”
If the defense closes its case by Friday afternoon, the trial will move to four hours of questions from senators before a four-hour debate on calling witnesses.
Trump declined an invitation to testify and no other witnesses were called. The Chamber will then hear two hours of oral argument from each side.
Forty-five Republican senators voted last month that the impeachment of a former president was unconstitutional, with only one Republican post change since the trial began.
Democrats need 17 Republicans to cross the aisle and vote with them to impeach Trump in order to muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict, but it looks almost certain the former president will be acquitted a second time.
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