Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, which commenced on February 9, in the US Senate witnessed fierce arguments from the defendants and the prosecutors with the deliberation running along the lines of “constitutional validity of the trial.” Trump’s defendant team, who were the flag bearers of invalidating the trial, were led by attorney Bruce Castor and David Schoen. 

Castor, who spoke first from the side of the former President, argued on the grounds of an absence of a “formal charge” against the accused. The reputed lawyer further backed his argument by stating that Trump has not been named as a co-conspirator in any of the cases which have emerged from the violent riots at the US Capitol. However, such charges are difficult to maneuver against a US President and need intense lobbying and time, which played in favour of the defendants. 

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He said in his opening statements, “So far, I haven’t seen activity in that direction. And not only that, the people who stormed this building and breached it were not accused of conspiring with the President.”

Later in his statements, while arguing about alleged hidden motives of the opposition he added, “We are really here because the majority in the House of Representatives does not want to face Donald Trump as a political rival in the future. That’s the real reason we’re here, and that’s why they have to get over the jurisdictional hurdle, which they can’t get over.”

David Schoen, one of the lead chairs in Trump’s representation at the trial, touched base with arguments that addressed separate tangents of the case and stated that the impeachment was an attempt to “disenfranchise” the Americans who voted for Trump’s re-election. He also reiterated his fellow attorney’s argument about Trump’s elimination from American politics. 

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He said, “Many Americans see this process for exactly what it is: a chance by a group of partisan politicians seeking to eliminate Donald Trump from the American political scene and seeking to disenfranchise 74 million-plus American voters.” 

The prosecutors, who gave their opening arguments at the trial before the defendants, played a video for the lawmakers to which Schoen said, “They want to put you through a 16-hour presentation over two days focusing on this as if it were some sort of blood sport. And to what end? For healing? For unity? For accountability? Not for any of those.”