Thread by @jentaub

✔️ We have begun. It's Day 4 of the Trump Impeachment Trial 2.0. The defense is putting on their case. The first lawyer is Van Der Veen.

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Already this is wackadoodle. Seems like the defense is trying to tell us not to believe what we saw. This lawyer has the audacity to say that the people assembled at Trump's speech were peaceful patriots

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This lawyer is claiming that Trump's speech on the ellipse on January 6th was was a policy speech about "turning out strong in the next primaries" and how this was about working on voting law reform.

A mere civics lesson.

3/

The lawyer is lying. The Clinton campaign never "declared that the election was stolen by Russia."

Also, this Trump lawyer is trying to claim that democrats objecting to some of the electoral votes is equivalent to Trump's incitement of violence.

4/

As we expected, Trump's lawyers are not going to address the merits. Instead this is what-about-ism

5/

Whoops!

Trump's lawyer said "litigating questions of election integrity" is not "incitement to resurrection"

I think he meant insurrection. What a dupe.

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He is now cherry-picking the rare instance of Trump hours into the riots at the capitol. A tweet where he said to remain peaceful when they had already siege the capitol.

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He claims these extremists "hijacked the event for their own purposes." He said that the pre-planned the event. He claimed the first arrested was "a member of Antifa."

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Lawyer not very smart. He says you "can't incite what was already going to happen."

FALSE. Trump cultivated them, groomed them, thanked them, organized the rally with the same people who were violent and then gave them the final command so they knew to "fight like hell."

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Trump's lawyer is now blaming the victims. He mentions the events at Lafayette Square from the summer where Barr sent out force to tear gas non-violent protesters so that Trump could do a photo up with a Bible at a church.

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And, he says someone needs to see if that's why force was not prepared to defend capitol

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"If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

He said that is ordinary campaign rhetoric.

Said "no human being believes . . .that is incitement to political violence.

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Untrue. We saw the evidence.

Now he is claiming that the press and Dems said the 2016 election had been "hacked."

ACTUALLY, the u.s. intelligence agencies and Mueller actually indicted Russian groups for conspiracy in our elections. So he is LYING

13/

Dude, Speaker Pelosi is not on trial. If you want to try her then go for it.

The topic today is the siege of the Capitol on January 6.

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He is now complaining about angry protesters surrounding Senator Collins' home.

Note: No one there was violent.

15/

So this is a lie. Trump's lawyer has not been consistent in opposition to mob violence.

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It looks like the defense's angle here is to say that Trump's words did not incite the crowd, and that the crowd acted independently, and a partisan effort.

He thinks he is clever to call this "constitutional cancel culture" or something like that.

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He says senate should reject this and "allow nation to move forward."

No. We will not move on. Sorry.

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Up next is Schoen. We saw him on Tuesday when he was supposed to be arguing that the senate did not have jurisdiction over the case. He failed at that as the senate majority found they did have jurisdiction.

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He said that Trump had a "law and order" message throughout his presidency.

Actually, it was law and order for little people. Above the law for him, his family, and friends and the white collar criminals and war criminals he pardoned or whose sentences he commuted.

20/

He's yelling, "why wasn't this footage never seen before?"

He's asking why wasn't Trump and American people able to see footage as soon as it was available?

21/

He says we still do not have all of the facts. claims that there is no way to have an investigation through a special commission and also try to bring impeachment case

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So this is chutzpah. He is complaining that the house managers are using news reports about how President Trump was delighted by riot. The reason why they are using media reports is because Trump is refusing to testify

23/

He claims that you get more due process when you fight a parking ticket, but this is not fighting a parking ticket. This is what the constitution allows and Trump has plenty of chances to present his own evidence.

24/

he is claiming that he believes that house managers made fake tweets. And now he’s claiming that he is so incompetent that he did not have the time to check. That is sad.

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this is so pathetic. He is looking at a draft of some of the evidence and claiming that because there was an error there that the house managers caught, it is deceptive

25/

Now he’s complaining about some kind of blue checkmark.

26/

Really? The defense is that cavalry was supposed to be Calvalry?

27/

This is all pretty boring and pathetic. If I were Donald Trump I would be disappointed in my lawyers.

Also this is an out right lie. The Democrats did not cut off that language. They played it.

28/

Schoen is LYING. Dems absolutely did not cut off the video. This lawyer is absolutely lying. But I guess if you spend your time representing monsters and people like Jeff Epstein were on your future client list before you are not someone who cares that much about the truth

29/

They are not helping Trump’s case. He is trying to compare George Washington to people who were traitors and fought against the union in the Civil War.

30/

Playing what Trump said to defend the rioters in Charlottesville is not helping him.

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Schoen is a liar

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How is it helping his case that the president has been committing impeachable acts since he was sworn into office. He has. He violated the emoluments clauses and there are many more reasons that he deserved impeachment even before the Ukraine quid pro quo.

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To be clear, I am not a fan of anyone using language like that. Talking about punching others. But none of these people are on trial and none of their words incited violence. It was a very different situation on January 6 and the house managers have made that clear.

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Context matters. When Elizabeth Warren says “fight back”, she’s clearly speaking about standing lobbying to members of Congress. That is not what Trump said. He said fight like hell and stop the steal. Warren wasn’t inciting angry crowd with weapons pointing them to Capitol

35/

Repeating the word fight in a completely different context from how Trump meant it does not help his case. The word fight or battle can be metaphorical and in each case that’s how they were using it. They’re talking about a struggle. But not a physical one.

36/

Yawn. This is the best they can do. Weird. None of this rhetorical language involved setting people directly to the Capitol at the very time Trump was trying to stop the counting of the vote.

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He keeps showing a clip of @ChrisCuomo. Chris Cuomo is a newscaster. He is not the President of the United States. He is not on trial for impeachment.

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The difference between a handful of Dems objecting to electoral votes in particular states in 2017 was that Hillary Clinton already conceded. This year objections were part of campaign to reject electoral college and send the vote to the state so Trump could prevail

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Furthermore in 2000, Al Gore had won the popular vote, and the whole thing came down to Florida and Florida was refusing to actually count the votes. And Al Gore conceded long before the joint session of Congress.

40/

More false equivalencies from trumps lawyers. Trump and those who said the election was stolen lost 62 cases. She was lying through his teeth about dead people voting. Not the same situation as legitimate questions about voter suppression in Georgia in 2018.

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i’m trying to understand how @Madonna is on trial now?

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Warren made clear that she means by fight based on her book called a fighting chance. That was the point of the house managers presentation. Incitement is context specific. Warren did not send mob who she knew was armed and dangerous to attack and tell them to fight like hell
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This is not a serious defense. It's an attack on Hollywood, and the news media, and Hillary Clinton

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This is chutzpah. He says. Trump's lawyer says the rhetoric has gotten destructive. Trump's own lawyer. Trump was kicked off Twitter because of his incitement to violence.

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Trump's counsel is a deflated, whining, what-about-istic, 7th rate attorney who will go down in history as a bootlicking apologist for a fascist president who tried to overturn an election by sending a mob to attack Congress and assassinate the VP so he could stay in office.

45/

Oh, please. He called 144 constitutional scholars as "partisan." Claims they are directly threatening his law license by saying his First Amendment articles are "frivolous". Said they should be "ashamed of themselves"

Note those law professors include several republicans

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This is DEEPLY ironic. This lawyer is trying to stifle the free speech of EXPERT law professors. They offered an opinion that the arguments are frivolous. How is that not protected by the first amendment.

47/

This lawyer reminds me of the grumpy school assistant principal in the Breakfast Club. Attitude, not looks

48/

This is the part of the case where Trump's lawyer is referencing cases that have nothing to do with Trump's impeachment.

49/

His urging "please read along with me" has the same energy as "please clap."

50/

He is not a very clear reader of his own words. That is if he wrote them. Very robotic. Pronounced government as "govern-mint" at first.

51/

Even if the Brandenberg test applies to Trump, and he is protected, showing this slide does not help his case. He says (and is wrong) that the House did not prove that Trump encouraged violent action.

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Trump's lawyer is also LYING. He claimed the House said incitement was not about the words. Incorrect. They explain how the words incited the violence and explained the full context of the words.

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The sing-song voice is so very annoying.

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This clip isn't helpful. When he said "you're sworn to uphold the constitution" directed at Mike Pence he was pressuring him to actually violate the law and throw out the votes

And he still would attack VP on Twitter when he knew the crowd was shouting "hang mike pence"

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More context on why those cases were off point

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https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1360297777465589763

Lazy lawyers. Playing the same clips three times in a row. I hope Trump does not pay them.

57/

Soporific. Took off his glasses and sighed. Low energy.

58/

Thank God. He's done.

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Phew. We have a 15 minute break.

60/

I am hearing from Nicole Wallace that Attorney Schoen LIED. The House Managers gave Schoen all of the videos before the trial.

They had all of the security video in advance.

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While we wait, it's worth noting that the House Managers do not get to respond to this. However, when the senators ask questions, that will invite the opportunity to address the glaring lies and the inapt caselaw.

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Still in recess. Thought I'd say I'm over on clubhouse, but not fully engaged yet. My name is @jentaub there as well

63/

Sorry for the gap. Had to take the dog to the vet. Picking up with the defense counsel talking.

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Bruce Castor is now going through the elements of the Brandenburg standard. He asked why the house managers discussed this. But. It’s arguing in the alternative. They said first amendment did not apply, but if it does, Trump’s speech was still incitement under Brandenburg.

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He is not very smart. Trump did not show distain for political violence. He showed distain for people on the left he claimed committed political violence. The excerpt Castor just showed seem like Trump was stirring up anger and animosity

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castor says he does not know whether he is under oath. That’s pretty stupid. He didn’t take an oath. However he should know the false statements statute would apply perhaps.

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He is taking issue with one time Rep. Neguse characterized Trump saying “you have to tell your people to fight”. Castor accuses him of lying

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I missed a bunch there because I am still dealing with my dog at the vet. Sorry

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Now it seems that Castor is trying to relitigate Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, an argument that 62 cases federal courts threw out. He’s complaining about signature matching.

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I really love that video. Fabulous. I really do hope he never runs again. Why would anyone want someone who is a lying, instigator of political violence trying to overthrow an election to run again? You have to be an idiot to want that.

71/

He says they are going to wrap up early, not because they ran out of arguments, but because now he thinks the Senate can help get Covid relief to the country.

Defense is done. Next questions after 15 minute recess.

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While we are waiting, sharing some insightful tweets. This one from Kevin Kruse

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https://twitter.com/kevinmkruse/status/1360317326944591873

The Senate is back in session now posing questions to both sides.

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Sorry that I have been missing. Dog trouble. Etc. But I’m catching up by Twitter. Thank you all

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https://twitter.com/jameshohmann/status/1360343684378673164

This guy is very indignant, accusing the Dems of "doctoring the evidence." Audacious.

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Question for both sides is whether in your mind did Trump actually win the election? Each side has two minutes to answer, I believe.

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Question came from Senator Sanders. Plaskett for the House Managers said Trump lost by 7 million votes and also 306-232 in electoral college. Also courts denied all claims of fraud.

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"My judgment is irrelevant in this proceeding" van der Veen side and there were a lot of boos from the chamber. He asked for the question to be read a second time.

79/

He is not going to answer. He said the only question is whether Trump's speech incited violence or riot.

He is screaming and claiming the House managers never answered that question.

That is bullshit. Excuse my french.

80/

This. Is. Not. A. Criminal. Proceeding. No one’s liberty is being taken away. This lawyer is blowing smoke

80/

I’ve been gone for an hour, so don’t realize on this thread. It pretty much closed out after six.

But here is something quite interesting

just heard that they gave Officer Goodman a standing ovation.

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thehill.com/homenews/senat…

And

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https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1360373326988906501