Impeachment: Madonna, Depp and Other Keys to Trump’s Lawyers in Trial

It must be a weird headline to digest, but the queen of pop was one of the stars of the fourth day of impeachment against former President Donald Trump.

Trump’s team of lawyers presented their defense arguments in the case against the former president, pointing out that the trial against him is “political revenge” and had nothing to do with the attack on the Capitol. Here’s a quick recap of the day.

Important: The Senate is expected to deliver a ruling on Saturday. Most likely, Donald Trump will be acquitted because of the politicization of the trial.

The keys:

• Trump’s lawyers spent 2 hours and 31 minutes of the 16 hours they had presenting their arguments. Democrats, on the other hand, spent about 10 hours presenting their evidence. Less than three hours to defend the case. The arguments presented suggest more than hubris, but suggest that the short time shows a lack of preparation in defense strategy and the lack of strong arguments to defend their client.

• Trump’s lawyers pointed out that when their client told his followers to “fight like hell,” he didn’t mean it literally. He used a figure of speech, they noted. “It’s just an expression,” they tried to defend.
• Bruce Castor, one of Trump’s attorneys, noted that the trial managers – the Democrats acting as prosecutors in the case – spent more than 14 hours showing footage of how terrible the attack on the Capitol was, but not the time names to legally tell the attack. with the former president. That is not true. While the Democrats’ argument could have been better, they did link Trump directly to the attack.
• The lawyers used a video montage showing some Democrats, such as Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi, showing anti-Trump statements they considered “ violent. ” All of this tries to indicate a “hypocrisy” on the part of the leaders of that party.
• In the video released Friday, Trump’s lawyers also inserted clips of Madonna and Johnny Depp making comments against the former president. “

1. “When was the last time an actor killed a president?” Depp said in 2017. The actor apologized for the misguided comment.
2. “I’ve been thinking a lot about blowing up the White House,” Madonna said at the Women’s March 2017. She later noted that her comment was taken out of context.

• But if all politicians, and even celebrities, use violent language, why did only Trump supporters act like that? It’s a question from Philip Bump in an analysis by The Washington Post.
• After the video, David Schoen, another Trump attorney, accused the Democrats of selectively “editing” the former president’s words when he said, “We’ll fight like hell and if you don’t fight that hard, you’ve got no country. ” But this was exactly what Trump’s lawyers did: They took several clips of Democrats from years ago with statements out of context that, it should be noted, did not lead to an episode of violence like the attack on the Capitol.
• Trump’s lawyers declined to answer the question of whether their client had won the 2020 election, which says a lot about the defense.

We advise: The questions Trump’s defense will have to answer at trial

• Trump’s lawyers said the former president was unaware that the life of his vice president, Mike Pence, was in danger.
• The former president’s legal team noted that his client was a protector of “law and order,” citing his response to the 2020 protests as an example. Trump’s lawyers suggested Democrats were apologizing for protesters’ excesses during the Black Lives Matters marches.
• They also pointed out that this was not an “uprising.” The Department of Justice has used that term from the beginning.
• Trump’s lawyers based their defense on freedom of speech. That the former president had the right to say anything he said because he was protected by the First Amendment. They never focused on analyzing what Trump was saying. They ended up showing a very broad and reductionist view of this concept, as there are limits to that right when it comes to defamation. As The Washington Post notes, “None of the cited case law says that a president or any other official has anything that amounts to an absolute right to freedom of expression.”
• The Senate has already asked the associated questions of the case managers and Trump’s defense.
• The Senate is expected to deliver a ruling on Saturday. Most likely, Donald Trump will be acquitted because of the politicization of the trial.

We advise: Republican senators secretly met with Trump’s lawyers