Fourth day of Trump impeachment trial closes, vote expected Saturday

Senators questioned Donald Trump’s defence team and impeachment managers Friday during the fourth day of the former US president’s impeachment trial.

Democrats asked about the way Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud had radicalized his followers, while Republicans asked whether the impeachment is a “political show trial” designed to discredit Trump.

Representatives of both parties posed questions about whether Trump took action to stop the violence.

“The reason this question keeps coming up, is because the answer is nothing,” said Stacey Plaskett, a Democratic impeachment manager.

The question-and-answer session closed out the fourth day of impeachment trial. The Senate will reconvene Saturday morning where they are expected to vote on whether to convict Trump on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.”

The vote is expected to fall largely along party lines, with Democrats likely to fail to gain the two-thirds majority necessary to convict Trump and prevent him from running for office in the future.

A handful of moderate Republicans, include Senator Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaksa, have indicated a willingness to convict Trump.

During one tense moment, Trump’s lawyers refused to answer a question posed by Senator Bernie Sanders about whether Trump had lied when he said that the November 2020 presidential election was stolen.

“My judgement is irrelevant in this proceeding,” responded lawyer Michael Van der Veen.

Earlier in the day, Trump’s lawyers, mounting their defence against charges that the former president incited a mob to attack the US Capitol, argued that Trump’s words were being taken out of context by Democratic lawmakers looking to impeach him.

Van der Veen began by arguing that there was nothing wrong with Trump’s speech, which came in the hour before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building on January 6.

Lawyer David Schoen lambasted Democrats for allegedly doctoring their evidence. He then showed a series of video clips of Democratic lawmakers saying the word “fight” in an apparent effort to demonstrate hypocrisy on their part.

Trump’s defence argued that the entire impeachment process was nothing but an effort to “eliminate a political opponent.”

Trump’s second impeachment is unprecedented. The US has only had four presidential impeachments in its history – two were of Trump and took place during the last year.

No other president or federal official has been impeached twice, and no president has faced an impeachment trial after leaving office.

House impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers both had 16 hours to make their case before the Senate, but the lawmakers pushing for impeachment concluded on Thursday with several hours to spare.

Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, used a little more than three hours of their time before they wrapped up their arguments on Friday.

The last several days of proceedings featured dramatic video footage showing just how close some lawmakers came to being physically attacked by rioters.

Lawmakers also showed evidence that the rioters who stormed the US Capitol in January believed they were following Trump’s orders.

The US House of Representatives has charged Trump with incitement of an insurrection, alleging that his voter fraud rhetoric and speech propelled a deadly mob to storm the US Capitol.

Five people died during the riots, including one police officer.