House Democrats on Monday categorically rejected the earlier legal argument President Trump
Donald Trump Dominion spokesman: Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, begs to be sued MORE‘s defense team and claims he bears no responsibility for the deadly attack on the Capitol last month.
In a lawsuit filed by the nine Democratic indictments, lawmakers allege that Trump incited the mob of his supporters who carried out the January 6 attack and said Congress had every right to condemn the former president for to prevent him from holding a high office again. .
“The House declares that every allegation in the article of indictment is true, and that all affirmative defense and legal defense set forth in the answer are entirely without merit,” the executives wrote.
The filing is just the latest in a back-and-forth exchange of legal documents between the two parties ahead of the Senate hearing, which begins Tuesday.
House Democrats, along with ten Republicans, accused Trump on Jan. 13, exactly a week after the Capitol siege. Trump trumpeted false allegations in the weeks before the attack that rampant voter fraud had “stolen” his election. Hours before the siege, he reinforced the empty allegations and encouraged thousands of his followers to march to the Capitol, where Congress confirmed the victory of its opponent, President. Joe Biden
Joe Biden How Biden’s Student Loan Policy is Equipped for the Benefit of Government and Nonprofit Workers, Biden sends America back to a more civilized government. Ready to take off: three simple guidelines for flying after vaccination MORE.
The ensuing attack forced the evacuation of lawmakers in both chambers and resulted in multiple deaths, including that of a Capitol police officer and a riot that was shot by another officer while trying to lobby the lobby of to storm the Speaker just outside the house floor.
Trump’s defense team, led by David Schoen and Bruce Castor, issued a lengthy legal statement earlier Monday, arguing that their client could not be convicted because the Constitution does not allow the indictment of former presidents.
Trump’s lawyers also allege that the former president exercised his rights for the first amendment to question the outcome of an election process he considered corrupt and to encourage his supporters to protest the results. If some in the crowd later became violent, the lawyers added, it’s just because they misinterpreted Trump’s message.
“The true truth is that the people who criminally violated the Capitol did so on their own initiative and for their own reasons, and that they are being prosecuted,” the defense said.
They demanded that the charges be dismissed ‘immediately’.
Democrats have a very different view of Trump’s guilt, and their single indictment accuses the former president of ‘inciting rebellion’.
In their Monday assignment, the accusation managers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin
Jamin (Jamie) Ben RaskinSunday shows preview: Budget resolution clears way for .9 trillion stimulus; Senate prepares for indictment READ: Trump attorneys reject request for indictment Senate Republicans do not want Trump to testify more in indictment MORE (D-Md.), Maintains that Trump can get an indictment, as the conduct in question took place while he was still in the White House.
“Presidents swear a sacred oath that binds them from their first day in office until their last day,” they wrote. “There is no ‘January exception’ to the Constitution that allows presidents to abuse power in their last days without accountability.”
Democrats also rejected the defense of the First Amendment, saying that Trump’s language – especially during the January 6 protest before the siege – was inherently violent and could only be interpreted as a call for arms against his political opponents in the Capitol. .
“When President Trump demanded that the armed, angry crowd at his Save America Rally ‘fight like hell’ or ‘you are not going to have a country anymore’, he did not urge them to form political action committees on ‘election security’. in general, ” the Democrats wrote.
“The House did not charge President Trump with expressing an unpopular political opinion,” they added. “It accused him of deliberately inciting violent rebellion against the government.”