WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrats use the upcoming trial of Donald Trump as a political ‘weapon’ to deter the former president from seeking office again and conduct a case that is ‘undemocratic’ and unconstitutional, one of his lawyers said on Monday . night.
Trump faces charges next week of inciting a disturbing and deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, when a crowd of loyalists in the city for a rally supporting the president raided police and the building stormed it. The House passed a single indictment against Trump one week before he left office. A trial would allow Democrats to present evidence against Trump and hold him publicly responsible for the attack.
Whether a Senate hearing is constitutional, however, is a point of contention because Trump is no longer in office and if convicted, cannot be removed from an office he does not hold. Democrats point to an indictment in 1876 of a war secretary who had already resigned and to opinions by many jurists. The Senate can vote to prevent Trump from holding federal office if convicted, which is a goal the Democrats support.
On the eve of the expected legal orders from both lawyers, Trump’s attorney, David Schoen, predicted on Fox News that the arguments he wants to make during the trial called the case unnecessarily divisive as well as unconstitutional and undemocratic.
“This is also the most ignorant legislative action I have seen in my lifetime,” Schoen said.
Trump is the first president in American history to be charged twice. He was acquitted during a Senate hearing last year over his contacts with his Ukrainian counterpart. Schoen said the accusation was the weapon they were trying to use against him. ”
The new case was an attempt to deter Trump from ever running again, Schoen said, “and it’s about as undemocratic as you can get.”
Schoen, a lawyer for criminal defense and civil rights, and Bruce Castor, a former state prosecutor in Pennsylvania, were announced as Trump’s legal team on Sunday night, one day after it came to light that the former president had another set up lawyers who described one person as a mutual decision.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Schoen said he did not intend to argue that Trump lost the election due to fraud, as Trump has repeatedly insisted, and would argue that the trial itself is unconstitutional, since Trump has already left office and that his words are protected by the First Amendment and do not incite riots.
House Democrats plan to graphically outline what happened on Jan. 6 – an attempt to penetrate Senate Republicans who largely avoided talking about the attack itself and Trump’s role in it, but rather on focus the process of the indictment. They are expected to play videos and orally portray the violence of the day in hopes of stirring up Republicans, most of whom fled the Senate that day when the rioters broke in.
It is expected that the nine executives of the House of Representatives who will argue the case will set out how they believe Trump’s actions over the past few months have led to that and ultimately encouraged the insurgents to act.
Their arguments include a look at Trump’s ‘long-running attempt’ to persuade his supporters to believe his false allegations that the election was stolen – and describe how he pleads for them to come to Washington and his words immediately before the attack caused it directly.
The mob that broke into the Capitol when the House and Senate gathered election votes not only looted the building, but repeatedly called on House President Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who were in the building around the dig to lead.
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Associated Press author Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
Originally published