On the eve of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, his legal team Monday denounced the case as unconstitutional, calling it “absurd” to hold the former president responsible for the deadly riot at the US Capitol.
The House of Representatives impeached Trump for a historic second time last month over his role in the deadly siege, and his trial — the first of a former president — begins Tuesday with the Senate’s 100 members sitting as jurors. “The Senate should dismiss these charges and acquit the president because this is clearly not what the framers wanted or what the Constitution allows,” his attorneys Bruce Castor, David Schoen and Michael T. van der Veen wrote.
The lawyers rejected as “patently ridiculous” the trial of a former president, a private citizen who cannot be removed “from an office that he no longer holds.”President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump on January 20, weighed in Monday but declined to address whether Trump should be found guilty or denied the right to hold political office in the future.White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki later told reporters that Biden ran against Trump in 2020 “because he felt he was unfit for office.
“His incitement of insurrection against the United States government — which disrupted the peaceful transfer of power — is the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president.”The proceedings will take place in the very Senate chamber that was raided by rioters, threatening the lives of lawmakers in an effort to stop the ceremonial certification of Biden’s election victory.
But convicting him would require the vote of more than two-thirds of the senators, meaning 17 Republicans would need to break ranks and join all 50 Democrats — seen as near impossible.