Trump lawyer David Schoen says impeachment trial will ‘tear this country apart’
Donald Trump’s attorney David Schoen on Tuesday argued that Democrats will “tear this country apart” and “open up new and bigger wounds” with the impeachment trial of the former president for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Schoen urged the Senate to dismiss as unconstitutional an article of impeachment against Trump for allegedly provoking the rampage that left five dead.
“This trial will tear this country apart, perhaps like we have only seen once before in our history,” Schoen said on the Senate floor.
After the presentation, 44 Republicans sided with Trump’s lawyers and voted that the Senate cannot put on trial a former president. The vote suggests Democrats will fall far short of the 17 Republicans needed to convict Trump, having won over just six.
The first day of arguments in the Senate trial focused on whether the trial is legal because Trump already left office. Trump’s team and impeachment managers presented conflicting views on historical precedent and the purpose of impeachment.
Schoen additionally argued that a thorough investigation — such as one underway by retired Lt. Gen. Russell Honore — could exonerate Trump and show that the violence resulted from “preplanning” by people with an “agenda bearing no relationship to the claims made here.”
Trump spoke to thousands of people near the White House on Jan. 6 and urged them to march on the Capitol to protest against certification of President Biden’s victory. People affiliated with the Proud Boys group already were clashing with police near the Capitol as Trump spoke, a Wall Street Journal video analysis indicates.
Schoen spoke firmly against the trial after a more rambling presentation by fellow Trump lawyer Bruce Castor, who warned that “the floodgates will open” if the Senate convicts Trump.
A source close to Trump said Castor’s seemingly unfocused delivery was designed to lower emotions after an intense presentation in favor of conviction by lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who played video of the Capitol under attack and shared how his daughter was with him that day to keep him company after the recent death by suicide of his son.
Schoen said that the trial was being waged by Democrats who don’t want a redux of Trump’s 2016 upset victory.
“The House surely seeks to strip Donald Trump of his most highly cherished constitutional rights, including the right to be eligible to hold public office again should you so choose,” Schoen said.
“A great many Americans see this process for exactly what it is: A chance by a group of partisan politicians seeking to eliminate Donald Trump from the American political scene and seeking to disenfranchise 74 million plus American voters and those who dare to share their political beliefs and vision of America. They hated the results of the 2016 election and want to use this impeachment process to further their political agenda,” he argued.
“These elitists have mock them for four years. They’ve called their fellow Americans who believe in their country and their Constitution ‘deplorables’ and the latest talk is that they need to ‘deprogram’ those who supported Donald Trump and the Grand Old Party.”
The House impeached Trump exactly one week after the riot. Trump is the first president to be impeached twice and the only ex-president to face a Senate trial.
The Senate acquitted Trump in February 2020 of allegedly obstructing Congress and abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate President Biden and his son Hunter. A single Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, voted to find him guilty on one of two counts.