The pair of lawyers currently representing Donald Trump in his Senate impeachment trial filed their answer to the House managers’ filing, claiming falsely that the impeachment is moot because Trump is no longer “President” [their use of quotation marks].
The lawyers claim that the impeachment trial is improper because Trump peacefully left office January 20th, and that his statements at the January 6th rally that preceded the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol were protected under the First Amendment. Trump, they claim, was only questioning the result of the election, not calling for an overthrow of the Constitution or the government.
In the 14-page response, the lawyers claim “[i]nsufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th President’s were accurate or not, and he therefore denies they were false.”
The defense team is constructing a number of fallacious arguments that go against precedent and accepted interpretations of law, including that a person cannot be tried for an impeachment once they leave office and that the President of the United States cannot be found guilty in an impeachment for his speech because of the First Amendment.
In this case, House managers’ argue, Trump’s speech amounts to an action–incitement of insurrection–which violate his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.