Feb 8, 2021 11:48 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday blasted the impeachment case against him as an act of “political theater” as they accused House Democrats of exploiting the chaos and trauma of last month’s riot at the U.S. Capitol for their party’s gain.
In a brief filed on the eve of the impeachment trial, lawyers for the former president leveled a wide-ranging attack on the case, foreshadowing the claims they intend to present when arguments begin Tuesday on the same Senate floor that was invaded by rioters on Jan. 6.
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. They say the Senate is not entitled to try Trump now that he has left office, an argument contested by even some conservative legal scholar
Trump impeachment to open with debate on constitutional
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Trump lawyers blast impeachment trial as political theatre - Medicine Hat NewsMedicine Hat News
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These two things happened on the same day last week.
Congressional leaders paid their respects to Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was killed by the insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, and whose remains were lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
And Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy told his caucus that there would be no disciplinary action against recently sworn in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for the kind of crazy talk that incited the insurrectionists who killed Sicknick.
Greene, who was stripped of her committee assignments later in the week with only 11 Republicans joining the unanimous Democrats, has been a leading promoter of the big lie that the presidential election was stolen. She also has indicated support for executing Democratic leaders and FBI agents, claimed that our nation’s worst school shootings were staged, blamed