Former President Donald Trump will not testify at his impeachment hearing in the Senate next week and will not issue a written statement, his attorney said Thursday after urging Democrats to attend.
A written statement was something that Trump’s former legal team thought.
Chief Impeachment Manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Mo., Earlier Thursday requested that Trump testify under oath.
Bruce Castor, who is part of the team that represented Trump at the impeachment hearing, was asked by NBC News “no” when Trump testified. “It’s a publicity stunt to address the vulnerability of home administrators’ cases, ”Castor said.
Rasky replied that any official accused of inciting violence against the government should welcome the opportunity to testify. “His immediate refusal, the volume speaks and clearly establishes an unfavorable conjecture supporting his guilt,” Raskin said.
Trump was indicted on January 13 by the House of Representatives in an article earlier this month accusing him of “inciting rebellion” for his role in a violent riot by pro-Trump mobs in the US Capitol.
Trump’s line of defense will focus on the argument that it is unconstitutional to influence him after giving him a leftist position – something that is in dispute.
“If you take the state of the House to its logical conclusion, they can blame Donald Trump and blame him if he’s dead.” And that would be a ridiculous result. They could impeach Abraham Lincoln. “
Democratic House impeachment managers say Trump’s actions guarantee disqualification from his federal office fees. They also argue that nothing in the constitution says that only current officials can be prosecuted.
He briefly wrote that the constitution was “explicitly intended to reach out to former officials”, adding that the Senate had found that former Sen. The case of William Blunt has the power to try former officers in 1798.
In 1876, Congress convicted William Belknap, the war secretary of Ulysses S. Grant, and then resigned, saying he was preparing to be impeached. He was tried anyway, but acquitted after reaching a Senate majority, but failed to reach the required two-thirds threshold.
Trump’s impeachment is the first time the president has been impeached twice. The Senate hearing is expected to begin on Tuesday.
Earlier this week, Trump’s lawyers sued briefly in the impeachment proceedings, calling the trial biased and unconstitutional. His lawyers have called for his immediate dismissal.
On Thursday, Raskey was asked to testify at the Trump trial. “Given your controversy over these factual allegations, I am writing to invite you to testify under oath,” Ruskin wrote in a letter to Trump.
Raskin noted in his letter that former presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton both “provided testimony when they were in office” and quoted the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling as saying the president was not immune from criminal prosecution.
“So there is no doubt that you can testify in this proceeding,” Raskin wrote.
Impeachment article, U.P. Trump has been accused by pro-Trump mobs in Pitol of “inciting insurgency” for his role in the violent riots that led to many deaths and terrorized legislators as they vowed to win President Joe Biden.
The article also mentions Trump’s January 2 phone call urging Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn the state’s election results as part of an effort to disrupt and block the 2020 presidential election results certificate. “
The Democratic-controlled House approved the article on the 232-197 vote; 10 Republicans were against Trump. It was the largest bipartisan vote on the president’s impeachment in history, doubling the number of Democrats who voted to impeach Clinton in 1998.
Castor said Trump’s claims of voter fraud – which have never been submitted and have been called baseless – will not be part of the defense.
“We’re not thinking of going down that road, and I don’t see any reason for that,” he said. “As far as I can tell, the case is a winner. And I’m not going to inject the problem in this case. She is injecting the problem in this case. ”
And during the impeachment hearing, Biden’s plans are to move forward with his work as if it’s not happening, White House officials said.
Officials said a busy schedule is being drawn up for the president to focus on the coronavirus epidemic and the economy and in meetings with state and local officials, targeting him on the job and blocked by the impeachment of his predecessor.
An official said that from the White House’s point of view, the impeachment hearing could not end – and Congress could not move forward anytime soon.
Trump’s request to testify at the Senate trial was met with some interference. Sen. J. Manchin, DWVA, said it would be a “dog and pony show,” and Biden’s closest ally was Sen. Chris Kuns, D-Dale. Call it the “terrible idea.”
Asked why it would be such a terrible idea, Kuns replied, “Have you met President Trump?”
Castor, a former Pennsylvania district attorney, said he expects the hearing to end Friday or Sunday.
Castor noted that David Shoen, another lawyer for Trump’s legal team, will not be able to work on Saturday because of his Jewish faith.
Senate impeachment rules indicate that the hearing will run from Monday to Saturday, with no hearing on Sunday. That change needs to be done through an agreement between the senators, who are able to change anything about the hearing with all 100 senators in the agreement.
Castor said Shoen will make the opening argument on behalf of the former president, while the yet-to-be-named lawyer will probably handle the middle part of the trial hearing, and Castor expects him to argue the team’s termination.
Asked if there would be any surprises in the trial, Castor said: “It will be exciting.”
Alice Perlmuter-Gmbiner and Phil Helsel Contributed.
