Former President Trump’s legal team tried to bring Democrats to justice on Friday by repeatedly playing clips of their hot rhetoric from the past and accusing liberals of setting a new “dangerous double standard” when it comes to Trump.
Trump’s lawyers said the former president’s speech before the January 6 Capitol uprising telling donors to “fight like hell” was in no way an incitement to violence, and they called each of the impeachment managers of the House and each Democratic senator for making similar statements.
“Each one of you, and each one of you,” David Schoen, a Trump attorney, bellowed to the Democrats in the room at the end of an 11-minute video with clips of each of them saying ‘fighting’.
‘That’s okay. You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s a word people use, but please stop the hypocrisy. ‘
Attorney David Schoen speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump on Friday, Feb. 12.
Friday was Trump’s first chance to defend himself against the charge of “inciting insurrection” based on his actions and omissions surrounding the January 6 Capitol riot that killed five people, including a Capitol Police officer.
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Trump’s legal team denounced the proceedings as an unconstitutional, “sham impeachment” motivated by the Democrats’ “hatred” of the former president. They said Trump’s political speech is protected by the First Amendment.
His lawyers said it is “absurd” to think Trump was trying to promote the uprising on January 6 based on his rhetoric that day and the long history of promoting “law and order” and denouncing violence. of the mafia at its many other political rallies.
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“No thinking person could seriously believe that the president’s January 6 speech on the ellipse was in any way an incitement to violence or insurrection,” said Michael van der Veen, a Trump attorney. “The suggestion is obviously absurd at first glance. Nothing in the text can ever be construed as encouraging, condoning or seducing any kind of illegal activity.”
Attorney Michael T. Van Der Veen speaks during the Trump impeachment trial on Friday, February 12.
Van der Veen added, “To claim that the president has desired, desired or encouraged lawless or violent conduct in any way is a ridiculous and monstrous lie.”
The defense team then played several lengthy video montages intended to embarrass the Democrats and call them a “double standard.” Just about every prominent Democrat, including Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Starred in videos encouraging liberals to harass Trump officials, and President Biden saying that if he was back in high school, he’d go after the gym and “ do the hell out of Trump.
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Schoen showed one of the videos by telling the room, “We need to show you some of their own words.”
Video clips also feature loaded speech from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., And Vice President Kamala Harris, where she joked on the ‘Ellen’ talk show that if she was stuck in a Lift with Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions that one of us may not “ get out alive. ”
Trump’s legal team argued that Democrats could be impeached under the new norm they are now trying to apply to Trump.
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“By the standards of the House’s impeachment article, each of these individuals should be retroactively censored, punished, or impeached for inciting violence by their supporters,” said Van der Veen.
Democrats destroyed the legal team’s focus on them as a distraction from Trump’s own behavior.
“What they are clearly doing is trying to draw a false and dangerous equivalence to distract from Donald Trump inviting the crowd and then inciting and then breaking his oath of office to protect the Capitol,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told D-Conn. . Capitol Hill reporters Friday.
After Trump’s defense team is finalized, senators will have the opportunity to ask questions of the lawyers on both sides.