Last week, President Trump announced a new team of lawyers who would be presenting his defense during the Senate’s impeachment trial, which is scheduled to begin later this week.
In a statement released to the media, David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor Jr. were named as his attorneys in the trial. Castor, who is the lead attorney, is a former Solicitor General for Pennsylvania. Schoen, a civil rights lawyer and criminal defense attorney, has been practicing law for over three decades. Schoen is also one of the lawyers who represented Roger Stone.
The team filed a legal brief on Tuesday that gave a glimpse into what their case will look like once the trial starts on Tuesday. Their primary argument will be that the Senate trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office. Further, they will argue that Trump’s speech did not incite the Capitol rioters and that he had a First Amendment right to say what he did:
The crux of Trump’s legal argument is that the trial is unconstitutional — a “legal nullity,” his attorneys write — because he is no longer a sitting president.[…]In their brief filed Tuesday afternoon, Trump’s attorneys deny that Trump was “factually in error” when he claimed on Jan. 6 that he had won the election by a landslide.”It is admitted that President Trump addressed a crowd at the Capitol ellipse on January 6, 2021 as is his right under the First Amendment to the Constitution and expressed his opinion that the election results were suspect, as is contained in the full recording of the speech,” Trump’s lawyers write.
Part of the Democrats’ case against Trump reportedly will involve airing video footage at the trial, including video of his January 6th speech as well as videos of the Capitol building being breached.
In response to that, Castor stated on Laura Ingraham’s show Friday that Trump’s defense would also be airing videos, except his clips would be of Democrats who either encouraged the Antifa/BLM-led riots from last year or who urged their supporters to harass Trump officials during the course of his time in office. His point is that Democrats are traveling down a dangerous path with the “incitement” charge considering what they’ve said over the last four years:
“Will you then respond with Maxine Waters, a number of other Democrat officials not speaking out about the Antifa and other extremist rallies over the last summer?” Ingraham asked.“I think you can count on that,” Castor said. “If my eyes look a little red to the viewers, it’s because I’ve been looking at a lot of video.”Earlier in the segment with Ingraham, Castor alleged “there’s a lot of tape of cities burning and courthouses being attacked and federal agents being assaulted by rioters in the streets, cheered on by Democrats throughout the country,” seemingly referring to ongoing unrest in Portland, Ore.
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In other words, if Democrats want to turn the trial into political theater – and they will, Castor is prepared to play that game, too.
This is sure to enrage Democrats, who don’t like to be reminded of their past statements in support of riots and/or confronting Trump officials – especially when those reminders are aired on national TV. Trump’s attorneys are also expected to bring up the fact that Democrats including the House’s lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin have objected to certifying electoral votes in presidential elections where Republicans have won, which should further incense Democrats who want people to believe that doing such a thing is undemocratic, unprecedented and unconstitutional.
Understandably, Trump’s team is not revealing the totality of their case before the trial, but one has to wonder if they’ll bring up the fact that it’s become increasingly clear that the Capitol riots were a preplanned affair, which refutes the Democrats’ central argument that Trump’s January 6th speech caused the riots.
Whatever the case may be, expect the high drama and fireworks to start early on. It wouldn’t be Washington, D.C. if the trial started any other way.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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