The second impeachment trial for Donald Trump is underway.
Democrats thought they held all the high cards.
But then Democrats gave Trump an impeachment ultimatum. This is why they lost big time.
Donald Trump’s lawyers responded to the House of Representatives’ article of impeachment by picking apart the claim President Trump incited a riot with his speech on January 6.
Trump’s lawyers stated that President Trump used the word “fight” just a handful of times and in the context of standard political language.
“Of the over 10,000 words spoken, Mr. Trump used the word ‘fight’ a little more than a handful of times and each time in the figurative sense that has long been accepted in public discourse when urging people to stand and use their voices to be heard on matters important to them; it was not and could not be construed to encourage acts of violence. Notably absent from his speech was any reference to or encouragement of an insurrection, a riot, criminal action, or any acts of physical violence whatsoever,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
The President’s lawyers also argued that Trump made a specific request for his supporters to protest “peacefully and patriotically” and that Trump had a First Amendment right to speak to his supporters in the manner every other politician does.
The Democrat House impeachment managers responded with a memorandum once again threatening Donald Trump that if he did not yield to their request to testify in the impeachment trial, they would take that as an admission of guilt.
“[T]he House has invited President Trump to voluntarily testify under oath, yet President Trump immediately rejected that opportunity to tell his story. The House will establish at trial that this decision to avoid testifying supports a strong adverse inference regarding President Trump’s actions (and inaction) on January 6,” the Democrats’ memo read.
The Democrats’ memo was a massive overreach and only added to the perception that this trial was a kangaroo court.
Already the Democrats have one of their most partisan Senators—Vermont’s Patrick Leahy—acting as both the judge and juror in this trial.
Now the prosecution is claiming that unless the defendant testifies, he is automatically guilty.
That flies in the face of the Constitution which gives Americans the right not to testify against themselves and Americans’ perceptions of fairness.
The latter may be even more important in this trial because impeachment is a political proceeding that doesn’t operate under criminal procedure and rules of evidence.
Democrats made it plain as day with their arguments that this impeachment is about delivering the rebuke to Donald Trump that failed to materialize on Election Day.
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