After two hours of blistering opening statements from Home Democrats prosecuting the impeachment case towards former President Donald J. Trump, Mr.
After two hours of blistering opening statements from Home Democrats prosecuting the impeachment case towards former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Trump’s protection lawyer, Bruce L. Castor Jr., opened with a slip, calling himself the “lead prosecutor.”
It didn’t get a lot smoother from there.
Mr. Castor — who’s most well-known for refusing to prosecute Invoice Cosby on fees of sexual assault when Mr. Castor was the district legal professional in Montgomery County, Pa. — began a meandering protection of Mr. Trump by which he not often referred to the previous president or his conduct on Jan. 6, when his supporters stormed the Capitol.
At occasions, Mr. Castor seemed to be arguing for Mr. Trump’s free speech rights and towards a partisan cycle of impeachments. Because the lawyer spoke, senators within the chamber generally appeared confused or uninterested.
The Trump Impeachment ›
What You Have to Know
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- A trial is being held to resolve whether or not former President Donald J. Trump is responsible of inciting a lethal mob of his supporters once they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, violently breaching safety measures and sending lawmakers into hiding as they met to certify President Biden’s victory.
- The Home voted 232 to 197 to approve a single article of impeachment, accusing Mr. Trump of “inciting violence towards the federal government of america” in his quest to overturn the election outcomes. Ten Republicans joined the Democrats in voting to question him.
- To convict Mr. Trump, the Senate would wish a two-thirds majority to have the same opinion. This implies at the least 17 Republican senators must vote with Senate Democrats to convict.
- A conviction appears unlikely. Final month, solely 5 Republicans within the Senate sided with Democrats in beating again a Republican try to dismiss the fees as a result of Mr. Trump is not in workplace. On the eve of the trial’s begin, solely 28 senators say they’re undecided about whether or not to convict Mr. Trump.
- If the Senate convicts Mr. Trump, discovering him responsible of “inciting violence towards the federal government of america,” senators might then vote on whether or not to bar him from holding future workplace. That vote would solely require a easy majority, and if it got here right down to occasion strains, Democrats would prevail with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote.
- If the Senate doesn’t convict Mr. Trump, the previous president could possibly be eligible to run for public workplace as soon as once more. Public opinion surveys present that he stays by far the preferred nationwide determine within the Republican Get together.
At one level, Mr. Castor appeared to check with Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, who has harshly criticized Mr. Trump for his actions on Jan. 6 and was one in every of solely 5 members of his occasion to oppose an effort final month to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional. Mr. Castor known as Nebraska a “judicial-thinking place” and steered that Mr. Sasse “faces the whirlwind,” drawing a befuddled look from the senator.
As Mr. Castor spoke, different senators appeared stressed and began speaking amongst themselves.
“The president’s lawyer simply rambled on and on,” mentioned Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas. “I’ve seen loads of attorneys and loads of arguments, and that was not one of many best I’ve seen.”
At one level, Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, stood up and leaned towards the again wall of the chamber. It was a stark distinction from moments earlier than, when the lawmakers had sat in silence at their desks as Consultant Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and the lead Home impeachment supervisor, confirmed a harrowing video of the Capitol assault and closed with a tearful and deeply private plea for justice.
Towards the tip of his remarks, Mr. Castor steered that the Senate mustn’t go ahead with the impeachment case, arguing that if Mr. Trump dedicated against the law, the Justice Division ought to merely arrest him.
“The American folks simply spoke — they only modified administrations,” mentioned Mr. Castor, who’s a part of a rapidly assembled authorized staff that stepped in when Mr. Trump parted methods together with his unique attorneys.
On the conservative TV station Newsmax, Alan M. Dershowitz, who served on Mr. Trump’s protection staff throughout his first impeachment trial final yr, panned Mr. Castor’s efficiency.
“I do not know what he’s doing,” Mr. Dershowitz mentioned. “Possibly he’ll carry it dwelling, however proper now, it doesn’t seem to me to be efficient advocacy.”
David I. Schoen, one other of Mr. Trump’s impeachment attorneys who adopted Mr. Castor, had a neater time maintaining senators’ consideration. He derided the Home managers for hiring what he known as a “film firm” to sew collectively essentially the most disturbing scenes of the Capitol assault as if it have been a “blood sport.” However Mr. Schoen performed his personal video presentation — with sinister music — displaying clips of Democratic lawmakers by way of the years calling for Mr. Trump to be impeached.
And Mr. Schoen provided a transparent rationale for why a former president mustn’t stand trial, arguing that it might set a harmful precedent the place any former official could possibly be punished after leaving workplace for having carried out his or her duties.
“Beneath their unsupportable constitutional concept and tortured studying of the textual content,” Mr. Schoen mentioned, “each civil officer who has served is liable to impeachment if any given group elected to the Home decides that what was considered vital service to the nation once they served now deserves to be canceled.”