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4 Ways Trump's Lawyers Challenged His Impeachment Charge

Masood Farivar

   WASHINGTON - Following two blistering days of arguments by the House
   Democratic managers that former President Donald Trump instigated a
   violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and continues to
   pose a clear and present danger to democracy, the Trump defense team on
   Friday questioned the legitimacy of the impeachment trial, slamming it
   as "an act of political vengeance" driven by the Democrats' anti-Trump
   animus.

   "It's about Democrats trying to disqualify their political opposition,"
   Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen told senators. "It is constitutional
   cancel culture."

   The question of whether the Senate can try to convict a former
   president has been debated ever since the House of Representatives
   impeached Trump last month, making him the first U.S. president to be
   impeached twice. Under the Constitution, conviction results in removal
   and disqualification from holding federal office in the future.

   On the opening day of the trial Tuesday, Trump's lawyers argued that
   the Senate has no authority to try a former president because the
   primary goal of impeachment is removal from office. But six Republican
   senators joined 50 Democrats to reject that argument, allowing the
   trial to proceed.

   With Trump out of office, Democrats say they want the Senate to bar him
   from running for president again. What is more, Congressman Ted Lieu,
   one of the House managers, told senators on Thursday that they want to
   prevent the catastrophe of another Jan. 6 from occurring. The incident
   left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer.

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