Trump’s Impeachment: President’s lawyers rest the case after 3 hours of legal argument

Former US president Donald Trump’s lawyers rested their cases on Friday in less than 3 hours, prompting another two and a half hour of questioning from senators. Mr. Trump’s legal advisor expostulated that the former president was being persecuted by a political feud, and that his actions were protected by the First Amendment.

Persistently showing the long video montage of Democrats saying the word “fight” in a variety of contexts to suggest that there is a double standard, Trump’s attorneys sought to link Democrats to political violence, in the opening arguments.

A source close to Mr. Trump’s legal team said that attorney David Schoen quit Thursday night over a dispute in strategy about how to use the videos which will be aired during the defense team’s arguments on Friday. Schoen re joined after Trump called and asked him to.

Van der Veen described this impeachment trial as his “worst experience in Washington.” Raskin responded later, saying “man, you should have been here on January 6.”

During the question and answer session, Mr. Trump’s attorneys also tried to argue that it would set a dangerous precedent to impeach a former official, although Mr. Trump was impeached while he was in office and the trial is being held after he left office.

The Senate will return on Saturday, when they will debate about calling witnesses.