Donald Trump’s impeachment team mounts incendiary defence

Lawyers for Donald Trump began an incendiary but brief defence of the former president on Friday, calling the House’s charge that he incited an insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 a “preposterous and monstrous lie” as they falsely equated his conduct to Democrats’ use of combative rhetoric.

With Trump’s second impeachment trial moving toward a rapid verdict, his lawyers used its fourth day to channel the former president’s own combative style and embrace of falsehoods to claim, contrary to facts, that Trump never glorified violence during his presidency and that he consistently called for peace as the rampage at the Capitol unfolded. Repeatedly showing video clips of Democrats urging their supporters to “fight” and Trump venerating “law and order,” they sought to rewrite not just the narrative of his campaign to overturn the election but that of his entire presidency.

“Like every other politically motivated witch hunt the left has engaged in over the last four years, this impeachment is completely divorced from the facts, the evidence and the interests of the American people,” said Michael van der Veen, one of Trump’s lawyers. “The Senate should promptly and decisively vote to reject it.”

Using a favourite tactic of Trump’s, his lawyers also sought to defend his behaviour by citing that of others, arguing that he could no more be held responsible for the Capitol assault than Democrats could for the violence that erupted at some racial justice protests last summer.

Their presentation unfolded after nine House prosecutors spent two days laying out a meticulous case against the former president — dramatized with never-before-seen video of the Jan. 6 riot — portraying the rampage as the direct result of Trump’s monthslong campaign to overturn the election. Desperate to cling to power, the Democrats argued, Trump goaded his followers into joining his effort and would do so again if the Senate failed to convict him and bar him from holding office in the future.

Confident they have enough votes from Republicans to acquit Trump for the second time in little more than a year, Trump's legal team planned to use no more than four of the 16 hours they were allotted, according to people familiar with the planning. That could clear the way for the next phase of the trial, in which senators have up to four hours to pose questions to the prosecutors and defence lawyers, as early as Friday.