The legal team’s initial written response to the article about Trump’s impeachment against Trump, submitted to the Senate on Tuesday, focuses on debatable constitutional arguments, notably the allegation that someone who is no longer in office is not made by the Senate can be convicted. (Many jurists disagree.) But the response also includes defending some of Trump’s claims that are clearly untrue – including the insane claim that he actually won the election.
The House article on impeachment charges that Trump instigated the uprising in the Capitol on Jan. 6. It claims that Trump gave a speech earlier the same day reiterating ‘false claims’ that we won these elections and that we won them by a landslide. ”
Trump attorneys Bruce L. Castor, Jr. and David Schoen? Yes, Trump made a speech and exercised his right to the First Amendment to voice his opinion – but when the House claims that its opinion “that the election results were suspicious” is factually incorrect, “Trump denies the accusation.”
That is frankly ridiculous. Trump lost fair and square. Joe Biden had been legitimately elected president. Trump’s opinion is factually incorrect. The end.
Another part of the Trump team’s response rejects the House’s allegation that Trump “repeatedly made false statements” in the months leading up to Jan. 6, claiming that the “election results were the product of widespread fraud.” The Trump team questions the legitimacy of pandemic changes in state and local electoral processes, then argues, “ There is insufficient evidence to support a reasonable lawyer to conclude that the 45th president’s statements were correct or not, and he therefore denies that they were false. “
That is very wrong. There is ample evidence that many of Trump’s specific claims about alleged fraud are false. And Trump and his allies have grossly failed, in court and elsewhere, to prove his vague conspiratorial claims that the election was “faked” and “stolen.”
Another big lie
The Trump team’s response makes a third allegation that is transparently false: “It is denied that President Trump made any attempt to undermine the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
To undermine can mean to overthrow, overthrow, undermine – and whatever definition you choose, Trump has clearly tried to do it.
We don’t even need to comment on Trump’s long-standing behind-the-scenes effort to change the outcome of the election; he conducted much of his campaign in public. For example, on the morning of January 6, the day of the uprising and certification, Trump tweeted that he wanted then Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the results: “ States want to correct their votes, which they now know they are based on. irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt processes that never received regulatory approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the United States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage! “
In his rally later today, Trump again urged Pence to “get through for us.” When Pence didn’t – Pence never had the constitutional power to reject certification of Biden’s victory – Trump criticized him in a second tweet.
Trump is unlikely to face a senate sentence for continuing to spread his lies. Most Republicans in the 50 Republican, 50 Democratic Senate seem ready to vote against him, and a conviction requires the support of two-thirds of the senators in attendance.
But it is telling that Trump will not even hold to the truth when it is clear that he is likely to win anyway.
