13:07
Trump advisor: legal team expected to use just four
hours today in Senate for defense
Two more
little snippets of detail about the defense legal team’s plans today, courtesy
of Trump advisor Jason Miller appearing on Newsmax. Their presentation will
last about four hours out of their possible sixteen, and Bruce Castor, a man
whose performance was widely questioned on Tuesday, will get a do-over.
Kaitlan
Collins
@kaitlancollins
Jason
Miller makes clear on Newsmax that Bruce Castor WILL have a speaking role
today. He says his arguments are “crisper” and “tighter” and adds that the
defense team reviewed their plan with Trump last night. They will go
about four hours.
12:45
Trump's laywers expected to concede violence was
traumatic and unacceptable, but argue Trump had nothing to do with it
The Senate
will reconvene today for the impeachment trial at noon EST (1700 GMT). Bearing
in mind that he will almost certainly be acquitted by enough Republican
senators to make it immaterial anyway, the Associated Press have this rundown
on what to expect from Trump’s defense team later today.
They report
that after a prosecution case rooted in emotive, violent images from the
Capitol siege, his lawyers will make a fundamental concession and agree that
the violence that day was every bit as traumatic, unacceptable and illegal as
Democrats say.
But, they
will say, Trump had nothing to do with it.
The move is
meant to blunt the visceral impact of the House Democrats’ case and quickly
pivot to what they see as the core — and more winnable in the public eye —
issue of the trial: whether Trump can be held responsible for inciting the
deadly 6 January riot.
The
argument is likely to appeal to Republican senators who themselves want to be
seen as condemning the violence without convicting the president.
“They
haven’t in any way tied it to Trump,” David Schoen, one of the president’s
lawyers, told reporters near the end of two full days of Democrats’ arguments
aimed at doing just that.
He had
already previewed the essence of his argument on Tuesday, telling the Senate
jurors: “They don’t need to show you movies to show you that the riot happened
here. We will stipulate that it happened, and you know all about it.”
Democrats
used the rioters’ own videos and words from 6 January to pin responsibility on
Trump. “We were invited here,” said one. “Trump sent us,” said another. “He’ll
be happy. We’re fighting for Trump.”
The
prosecutors’ goal was to cast Trump not as a bystander but rather as the
“inciter in chief” who spent months spreading falsehoods and revving up
supporters to challenge the election.
But Trump’s
lawyers have made clear their position – that the only people responsible for
the riot are the ones who actually stormed the building and who are now being
prosecuted by the Justice Department.
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