Former President Donald Trump‘s defense at his Senate impeachment trial next week will include videos of Democrats encouraging violence, one of his lawyers said Friday.
The clips would counter videos that Democrats likely will show of the riot at Capitol and Mr. Trump‘s fiery speech at a rally shortly before the attack on Jan. 6, which Mr. Trump stands accused of inciting.
Trump lawyer Bruce Castor told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham “you can count on that” when asked about using video montage of Democratic members of Congress calling for violence against Trump administration officials and law enforcement.
“I’ve been looking at a lot of video over the past couple of days,” Mr. Castor said. “You better be careful what you wish for.”
Mr. Trump‘s primary defense at the trial, however, will be that the Senate lacks jurisdiction.
At the proceeding, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Mr. Trump‘s lawyers will argue the Senate shouldn’t hear an impeachment trial since Mr. Trump already left office. Mr. Castor said the punishment if convicted is removal, which makes the issue moot.
“By the House impeachment resolution logic, they could go back and impeach Abraham Lincoln,” he said.
House Democrats charge Mr. Trump for inciting violence with his claims of election fraud and urging his supporters to protest the joint session of Congress which convened to certify the 2020 results.
They say he mobilized his voters to carry out the attack.