Former President Donald Trump submitted his response to the article of impeachment against him through his attorneys on Tuesday. Trump denies he should be contested in the Senate after the House impeached him in January. He contented it goes against the Constitution to impeach a former official who does not hold the office.
Trump's Response to Impeachment Trial
According to lawyers for the former president on Tuesday, the House's impeachment of Trump is "facially and substantively flawed, and otherwise unconstitutional."
Responding to House Democrats' brief alleging the former president was to be held accountable for the US Capitol siege, lawyers David Schoen and Bruce Castor called for either the single article of impeachment against Trump to be dismissed "with prejudice." This means the case cannot be brought again or for the acquittal of the Senate.
Portions of the United States Constitution dealing with impeachment require that an individual needs to hold office to be impeached, they wrote in one of their responses to the arguments of Democrats, reported PBS.
Trump utilized his legal response to impeachment charges against him in the United States Congress as a vehicle for his conspiracy theory.
Trump's allegation he was the victim of massive voter fraud in the November 3 presidential election has not ebbed in the days since he left the Oval Office after spending his last two and a half months in office in a bid to overturn the results of the election against President Joe Biden.
According to a source, Trump's aim to use the Senate impeachment trial to project his fraud allegations was a factor in his parting of ways with five attorneys over the weekend who wanted to target constitutional questions, reported Reuters.
According to House Democrats on Tuesday in their most expounded case yet for why Trump should be convicted and permanently barred from the presidency, the former president reportedly endangered the lives of all Congress members when he provoked a mob of supporters "like a loaded cannon" at the US Capitol. Trump denied such claims, reported Syracuse.
With merely days to go prior to Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate, arguments from both sides have been taking shape.
His attorneys focused on an argument that last week won the favor of 45 Senate Republicans in a failed vote for dismissal that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional.
Impeachment managers issued their 80-page brief before the Senate trial against the former president. Rep. Adam Schiff, who was the lead impeachment manager for Trump's first impeachment trial, joins MSNBC's Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber to discuss the case against him, his allegations that the trial is "unconstitutional," and the evidence set forth against him.
The 80-page document lays out the case of the former president, which indicates his pursuit of power is a significant betrayal that qualifies for his conviction.
Aside from being unconstitutional, Trump's attorneys also said he was exercising his First Amendment right of free speech in questioning the presidential election results -- which they stated could not be proven as false.
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