The architect of Donald Trump’s second indictment blamed the “explosive and disturbed” tactics of the former president’s advocates for obscuring the strength of the case put forward by House Democrats.
Chief Justice Jamie Raskin said the Democrats’ case nevertheless appeared to convince even Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Trump’s guilt for inciting the Capitol riot.
Two days after Trump escaped conviction, and when his supporters rejoiced in the prospect of his return to frontline politics, Raskin also told the Washington Post that it was “good and terrible to watch” McConnell’s speech after the verdict in which he excites Trump – but said he voted for acquittal because the trial was unconstitutional.
It was telling, according to Raskin, that many of the 43 Republicans who voted for acquittal “felt the need to hang their hats” on the argument, which was rejected by fundamentalists and twice by the Senate itself.
Not even Trump’s lawyers have tried to defend what Democrats called Trump’s ‘big lie’: that he won an election he actually lost by more than 7 million popular votes and 74 electoral votes.
Trump’s legal team, led by a personal injury lawyer, and a former prosecutor in the country who did not want to prosecute Bill Cosby, also failed to free Trump from the attack on the Capitol, judging by the speeches of the Republican senators.
Instead, Trump’s lawyers denied an abundant and unequivocal report of what the former president said and did, drawing false parallels between the ordinary political speech and Trump’s coup.
In the final vote of the indictment, seven Republicans voted with Democrats to condemn Trump – a score of 53 votes, ten less than the required total.
In a statement of how the Republican Party has deviated from popular will, nearly six in ten Americans – 58% – believe Trump should have been convicted, according to a new ABC News-Ipsos poll.
Raskin and his co-managers have been widely praised for their work. Their case offered extensive use of the video of events at the Capitol on January 6, when supporters were told by Trump to “fight like hell” to reverse his election defeat, and some legislators had to kidnap or kill him in the hunt. Five people died as a result of the riot.
Raskin starred despite his son killing himself in December. He told the Post he “told executives that we were going to file a lawsuit but would not censor the emotion”.
There was criticism among Democrats after the executives persuaded the Senate to vote to call witnesses, but then agreed to avoid the move, which could extend the trial. Raskin said Sunday that witnesses would not change their minds.
“These Republicans voted to speak out in light of this mountain of irrefutable evidence,” he told NBC. “There is no reasoning with people who basically act like members of a religious cult.”
The Virgin Islands delegate, Stacey Plaskett, who is also widely praised for her role in the trial, told CNN: “We did not need more witnesses, we needed more senators with spines.”
More evidence of Trump’s alleged transgression can still be found. Members of Congress from both parties have called for a dual 9/11-style commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcers did not stop the attack on the Capitol.
Trump attorneys Michael van der Veen, Bruce Castor and David Schoen celebrated their client’s acquittal, but they faced widespread ridicule for a case based on thin arguments over freedom of speech and a sparkling case over democratic attitude towards protest against racism and cruelty of the police.
“They could not get a summer internship at My Cousin Vinny,” Raskin told the Post, perhaps a deliberate reference to a bizarre and famously sweaty press conference hosted by another Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in November , was given amid the failed attempts of the former president to prove major fraud in his election defeat by Joe Biden.
My Cousin Vinny is a 1992 Oscar-winning comedy about an unfortunate lawyer played by Joe Pesci. Giuliani said it was ‘one of my favorite legal movies because he’s from Brooklyn’.
Trump, who hails from Queens, refused to testify in his own defense. Raskin calls him “a profile in absolute cowardice” and says: “He betrayed the constitution, the country and its people.
“Trump’s followers need to understand that he has no loyalty to them … Donald Trump is the past. We have to deal with the future. ”