THE Capitol invaders believed they were acting on Donald Trump’s orders to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden as President, impeachment prosecutors said.
On the third day of the former President’s impeachment trial, prosecutors presented videos of rioters, some posted to social medial by the rioters themselves, talking about how they were doing it all for Trump.
“They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the presidents orders,” said Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado.
The trial also heard a claim that the takeover of the Michigan Capitol by Trump supporters was “dress rehearsal” for the January 6 attack on Congress.
Rep Jamie Raskin said: “The president says heavily armed extremists carrying Confederate battle flags and pushing past police to overtake the Michigan State house chamber are very good people.
“The siege of the Michigan Statehouse was effectively a state-level dress rehearsal for the siege of the US Capitol that Trump incited on January 6.”
Follow our Donald Trump live blog below for up to the minute updates on the impeachment...
- Claudia Aoraha
TRUMP WAS 'EGGING THEM ON'
Chris Murphy, US Senator from Connecticut, tweeted: "I remember the moment I saw Trump's tweet attacking Pence.
"We were in the chamber as aides were scrambling to bar the doors. Some were sobbing in fear.
"The mob was outside.
"Someone yelled out shots had been fired.
"I turned to Tim Kaine and said, "Oh my god, he's egging them on.""
- Claudia Aoraha
TRUMP'S LAWYERS TAKE THE FLOOR
Lawyers for Donald Trump take the Senate floor Friday to rebut the Democratic-led impeachment of the former president for inciting insurrection, with Republican lawmakers then widely expected to vote to acquit.
Democratic impeachment managers rested their case Thursday after two days of often emotional presentations.
Now the Republican property tycoon's lawyers will get a chance to respond.
They are expected to make arguments brief, hastening the Senate verdict.
"There's no reason for us to be out there a long time. As I said from the start of this thing, this trial never should have happened," one of the lawyers, David Schoen, told Fox News.
The impeachment team charged Trump with stoking an insurrection after losing re-election to Joe Biden on November 3.
- Claudia Aoraha
RECAP FROM YESTERDAY
Rep. Jamie Raskin implored senators in his closing speech to exercise “common sense about what just took place in our country” and find Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection. Raskin is the lead prosecutor for the House.
He said senators have the power under the Constitution to find Trump guilty of having betrayed the oath of office the nation’s founders wrote into the Constitution.
Another impeachment manager warned senators that acquitting Trump could have lasting consequences for the country.
Rep. Joe Neguse said that “if we pretend this didn’t happen, or worse, if we let it go unanswered, who’s to say it won’t happen again.”
Trump’s lawyers will begin their arguments when the trial resumes at noon Friday.
- Claudia Aoraha
WHAT'S HAPPENING ON FRIDAY?
On Friday, Trump's defense will take its turn to present their arguments.
- Claudia Aoraha
CONTINUED
It appeared Cassidy was torn between what a majority of his constituents wanted, and what he felt was his duty.
Politico reporter Burgess Everett said Cassidy wasn't a "loyalist", but nor was he a frequent critic of Trump.
"[Cassidy] evaded easy typecasting during the Trump era," Everett said.
- Tariq Tahir
DEMS WRAP UP THEIR CASE AGAINST TRUMP
House prosecutors wrapped up their impeachment case against Donald Trump.
"We humbly, humbly ask you to convict President Trump for the crime (of) which he is overwhelmingly guilty," said Joe Neguse, one of the nine impeachment managers from the House of Representatives.
Jamie Raskin, the lead House manager, reminded senators sitting as jurors of their oath to render "impartial justice” as he said Trump did nothing for two hours as his supporters rampaged through Congress.
"Why did president Trump not tell his supporters to stop the attack on the Capitol as soon as he learned about it? As our constitutional commander in chief, why did he do nothing to send help?"
- Tariq Tahir
TRUMP HITS THE GOLF COURSE
As his defence team prepared to make their presentation, Donald Trump hit the links at one of his golf courses in Florida.
The former president headed to the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach on Thursday, the Washington Examiner reported.
Trump started his 18 holes just before Democratic prosecutors began wrapping up their case against him in the Senate.
- Tariq Tahir
TRUMP 'MAY DO IT AGAIN'
Donald Trump could get back into office and “do it all again” if he is not convicted, his impeachment trial was told today.
Dem prosecutors argued Capitol rioters thought they were following Trump’s orders when they stormed the building to stop Biden’s election win being certified.
Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin said if Trump gets into power and it "happens again…we will have no one to blame but ourselves."
He added: "Is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office – Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?"
- Tariq Tahir
'NO FIRST AMMENDMENT PROTECTION FOR TRUMP'
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin has been making a pre-emptive case against the free speech defence to come.
“There’s no first amendment protection for speech directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action, and likely to produce such action,” he said.
“Based on all the evidence you’ve heard, and all the reasons you’ve heard, that definition of prescribable speech fits president Trump’s conduct perfectly. This is a classic case of incitement.”
- Tariq Tahir
MICHIGAN ‘DRESS REHEARSAL’ FOR CAPITOL SIEGE
Impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said the hundreds of protesters who took over the Michigan Capitol was a foretaste of what was to come.
Raskin told the trial: “The president says heavily armed extremists carrying Confederate battle flags and pushing past police to overtake the Michigan State house chamber are very good people.
“The siege of the Michigan Statehouse was effectively a state-level dress rehearsal for the siege of the US Capitol that Trump incited on January 6.”
- Tariq Tahir
BIDEN – MINDS MAYBE CHANGED BY IMPEACHMENT
Joe Biden says he believes some minds may be changed in former Donald Trump’s impeachment trial after the display of graphic videos.
Biden told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he didn’t watch any of the previous day’s proceedings live but later saw news coverage.
The President has steadfastly refused to weigh in on the trial and again on Thursday said his focus was on fulfilling his campaign promise to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
- Tariq Tahir
RIOTERS ‘BELIEVED THEY WERE FOLLOWING TRUMP’
Capitol invaders believed they were acting on Trump’s orders to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden as President, impeachment prosecutors said.
The prosecutors are wrapping up their opening presentation, describing in stark, personal terms the horror they faced that day.
They presented videos of rioters, some posted to social medial by the rioters themselves, talking about how they were doing it all for Trump.
“They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the presidents orders,” said Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado.
- Tariq Tahir
PELOSI PROPOSES CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL FOR COPS
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will sponsor legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the U.S. Capitol Police.
The proposal will also cover other law enforcement officers who protected the Capitol as it was overrun by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died after the January 6 attack, one of five people to be killed. More than 70 officers with the U.S. Capitol Police were injured.
- Tariq Tahir
TRIAL RESUMES WITH DEMS TO FOCUS ON HARM
The impeachment trial has resumed and the Democrats plan to use their remaining hours of arguments to lay out the physical and mental harm caused by the attack.
They will focus Trumps lack of action as it unfolded and do a final presentation on the legal issues involved, according to aides working on the impeachment team.
Impeachment managers will have eight hours to present arguments, and the Senate will take a break every two to three hours.
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
The sources claimed the former president mocked the Democrats' presentations on Wednesday, the second day of Trump's second impeachment trial.
According to the report, Trump's senior adviser Jason Miller revealed the business-man-turned politician "thought the presentations [were] terrible."
Trump – who was reportedly in "really good mood" – ridiculed his opponents' presentations in private as "an emotionally manipulative ploy" and "an attempt to divide the country," the source told the news outlet.
He also dubbed California Rep Eric Swalwell as "pathetic," the report explains.
Meanwhile, during a Wednesday night interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Senator Lindsey Graham insisted the "not-guilty vote is growing."
- Niamh Cavanagh
‘CRAZY CIRCUS’
Donald Trump has reportedly blasted the "terrible" impeachment trial prosecutors over Capitol riot videos as Republicans have slammed the "offensive" case.
The former president has been watching the Senate trial from his Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, according to reports.
The 74-year-old Republican was unimpressed when Impeachment managers played never-before-seen harrowing videos of the US Capitol siege on January 6, two sources with knowledge of the matter told the Daily Beast.
The footage played during trial included a video of the Capitol mob smashing into the building, distraught members of Congress moving to safety, rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police and audio of Capitol police officers pleading for back-up.
- Niamh Cavanagh
GRAPHIC RIOT VIDEOS NOT ENOUGH TO CONVICT TRUMP,REPUBLICAN SENATORS SAY
Multiple Republican senators found graphic videos of the deadly January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol upsetting but suggested they would not lead them to convict former President Donald Trump of inciting insurrection.
The House of Representatives' Democrats prosecuting Trump in his second impeachment trial on Wednesday leaned heavily on the threat posed to Republicans, including then-Vice President Mike Pence, by hundreds of Trump supporters attempting to stop Congress from certifying his election defeat.
"Today's presentation was powerful and emotional, reliving a terrorist attack on our nation's capital, but there was very little said about how specific conduct of the president satisfies a legal standard," said Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
Clinton's tweet followed just minutes after Nancy Pelosi insisted the "evidence of President Trump’s guilt is overwhelming."
The 80-year-old House Speaker wrote to Twitter: "If future presidents know they can incite an insurrection in their final days in office & get away w/ it, we invite dangerous abuses of power.
"The Senate must convict President Trump & disqualify him from holding future office."
Some of the evidence she was referring to is the harrowing new footage showing how Mike Pence and Mitt Romney fled for their lives as rioters smashed into the Capitol.
- Niamh Cavanagh
HILLARY BLASTS GOP
Hillary Clinton took to Twitter to slam Republican Senators who don't vote to convict Donald Trump as "his co-conspirators."
Clinton's commentary comes as former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is underway.
The former US Secretary of State tweeted on Wednesday morning: "If Senate Republicans fail to convict Donald Trump, it won't be because the facts were with him or his lawyers mounted a competent defense.
"It will be because the jury includes his co-conspirators."
The former first lady isn't new to condemning members of the GOP – as just just last month she insisted "QAnon Rep" Marjorie Taylor Greene should be "on a watch list" after posts backing Democrat executions resurfaced online.
- Alice Peacock
CONTINUED
It appeared Cassidy was torn between what a majority of his constituents wanted, and what he felt was his duty.
Politico reporter Burgess Everett said Cassidy wasn't a "loyalist", but nor was he a frequent critic of Trump.
"[Cassidy] evaded easy typecasting during the Trump era," Everett said.
- Alice Peacock
CASSIDY'S CONUNDRUM
Louisiana Republican senator Bill Cassidy is the only GOP to have switched his vote on Tuesday, declaring the impeachment trial is constitutional.
According to reports from Politico, Cassidy appeared to be struggling with the trial, appearing troubled by what was going on.
He reportedly was spending much of the trial furiously taking notes, pacing in the back of the room or sighing loudly in clear distress.
Cassidy told the Hill pool Wednesday night that he "took an oath to uphold the Constitution".
“A constitutional conservative takes that oath seriously. So, if I’m here to uphold the Constitution, I’m upholding it. I’m doing my job," he said.
- Niamh Cavanagh
WHAT OTHER PRESIDENT HAS BEEN IMPEACHED?
The first President to be impeached was Andrew Johnson, who served for four years from 1865.
He was impeached by the House in 1868, just 11 days after he got rid of his secretary of war Edwin Stanton.
The two-thirds majority needed in the Senate was missed by just one vote.
- Niamh Cavanagh
WHAT OTHER PRESIDENTS HAVE BEEN IMPEACHED?
Two other presidents in US history have been impeached, despite numerous threats on others.
The most recent was Bill Clinton, who was impeached in the House on charges of perjury and obstructing justice on December 19, 1998.
It related to his denials of an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
He infamously denied having "had sexual relations" with her to the public and federal investigators in January 1999.
- Niamh Cavanagh
DEMOCRATS TO FOCUS ON 'TERRIBLE TOLL' OF RIOTAS TRUMP IMPEACHMENT TRAIL CONTINUES
Democrats making the case that Donald Trump should be convicted of inciting the siege at the U.S. Capitol will focus on Thursday on the damage wrought by the riot and the former president's role in inflaming the rampage.
The House of Representatives has charged Trump, a Republican, with inciting an insurrection by exhorting thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol on January 6, the day Congress gathered to certify Democrat Joe Biden's election win.
The House managers who are prosecuting the case in the U.S. Senate spent much of Wednesday recounting the events that led to the riot and highlighting the threat to former Vice President Mike Pence.
On Thursday, they planned to illustrate the "terrible toll" of the riot and Trump's "role in assembling, inciting and inflaming the insurrectionists," a House aide said.
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
For his second impeachment, the House voted by 232 to 197 to impeach the president for "incitement of insurrection".
With the House approving articles of impeachment, a trial will now be held in the upper chamber, the Senate.
House members act as the prosecutors; the senators as jurors; the chief justice of the US Supreme Court will preside.
Conviction and removal of Trump will require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which will be evenly divided.
This means at least 17 Republicans would have to vote with Democrats in the evenly split, 100-seat chamber, explains the BBC.
But a trial will not be carried out before he leaves office on January 20.
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