The defense begins presenting its case today in what promises to be an extreme contrast to the House managers’ two-day video-rich oration.
“Right now, they were shooting for Tuesday, but I think it’s moving much more quickly. I think it could be over Saturday,” said David Schoen, one of former President Donald Trump’s defense lawyers.
Schoen said his defense on Friday will last only three or four hours. That may come as a welcome departure for weary Republican senators, few of whom appeared to be persuaded by what many saw as a prosecution rife with errors of omission.
Radio host Mark Levin said, “We have a political party that cheered on antifa and Black Lives Matter and called federal law enforcement storm troopers. And here they are bringing this Soviet-style case against the president [of the] United States, Have there ever been any many, many stupid members of Congress in your life?”
“If this is a problem for a politician to give the speech that President Trump did, but then Kamala Harris has a real problem because she actively engaged in bailing out rioters,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said.
Almost certainly lacking votes to convict in the Senate, the House managers were playing to a second audience: the court of public opinion. The repetitious videos seemed to be designed for busy voters not glued to their seats in the Senate chamber.
On Thursday, the managers reached back further into Trump’s tenure to establish a pattern of incendiary rhetoric that, they claimed, served to inspire his followers to act in violence on his command.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead House impeachment manager, said, “The siege of the Michigan statehouse was effectively a state-level dress rehearsal for the siege of the U.S. Capitol that Trump incited on Jan. 6. Trump knew exactly what he was doing in inciting the Jan. 6 mob.”
“The insurrectionists acted at Donald Trump’s direction. They said so. They were invited here. They were invited by the president of the United States,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat.
The many incarcerated rioters now expressing remorse and claiming that they had acted at the direction of Trump include Jacob Chansley and Riley Williams.
Chansley, also known as the “QAnon Shaman,” said through an attorney that he is “deeply disappointed in former President Trump. He was not honorable. He let a lot of peaceful people down.” And the lawyer for Williams, the woman accused of stealing a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, said, “It is regrettable that Ms. Williams took the bait.”
What the managers did not say is that those who have been charged are facing jail terms of up to 10 years. Anyone familiar with American justice knows it’s easy to blame someone else if it gets you less time in jail. The impeachment trial resumes at noon today.
