The Democratic-controlled House impeached Mr. Trump on Jan. 13 on a charge of inciting the violence. Law enforcement has brought criminal charges against more than 170 people in connection with the riot.
After Election Day on Nov. 3, Mr. Trump spawned the Stop the Steal movement with repeated claims that the election was stolen and that he had won in a landslide.
His constant refrain is that he was ahead that night and then lost battleground states in the ensuing hours and days as ballot counting continued.
“That election, our election was over at 10 o’clock in the evening,” Mr. Trump told the protesters. “We’re leading Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, by hundreds of thousands of votes. And then late in the evening, or early in the morning, boom, these explosions of bulls -.”
Trump s second impeachment trial is opening this week with a sense of urgency by Democrats who want to hold the former president accountable for the violent US Capitol siege and Republicans who want it over as fast as possible.
They suggest that Trump was simply exercising his First Amendment rights when he disputed the election results and argue that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to have a peaceful protest and therefore cannot be responsible for the actions of the rioters.
Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday blasted the impeachment case against him as an act of “political theater” by Democrats. The trial is set to begin Tuesday.