WASHINGTON, Feb 5, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Former president Donald Trump refused
Thursday to testify in his looming impeachment trial after being called by
House prosecutors to give evidence, branding the process “unconstitutional.”
Trump’s lawyers ridiculed the request in a letter by lead House prosecutor
Jamie Raskin to answer questions over the January 6 attack on the US Capitol
as a “public relations stunt.”
“Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your
allegations” against Trump, attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen said in
their reply.
While the attorneys did not say whether he would testify, a senior advisor
to Trump, Jason Miller, said flatly that he would not.
“The president will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding,” Miller
told AFP.
– Trial opens Tuesday –
The refusal came five days before the trial of the former US leader on one
charge of “incitement to insurrection” opens in the US Senate.
In his unprecedented second impeachment trial, Trump is accused of
fomenting the attack by his supporters on the US legislature one month ago,
forcing a halt to proceedings to certify opponent Joe Biden’s victory in the
November presidential election.
Raskin said the trial will prove “Trump’s conduct was indefensible.”
“His immediate refusal to testify speaks volumes and plainly establishes an
adverse inference supporting his guilt,” he said in a statement.
Raskin had asked Trump, who has maintained without evidence that Biden won
by massive fraud, to testify sometime next week, before or during the trial.
He said Trump, who now lives in his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, had little
excuse to avoid testifying, and could no longer claim he was too busy
overseeing the country, as was the White House position when he was still
president.
– Assault on the Capitol –
Raskin’s letter and the response set out the battle lines for the never-
seen impeachment trial of an ex-president.
The Democratic House prosecutors, or impeachment managers, say the
Republican leader was “singularly responsible” for the Capitol attack, which
left five dead.
“In a grievous betrayal of his oath of office, president Trump incited a
violent mob to attack the United States Capitol,” they said.
Trump’s team argued in a filing Tuesday that whatever he said in the days
and hours before the attack to encourage supporters to reject Biden’s
election win amounted to constitutionally protected free speech.
They declared it unconstitutional to put a former president on trial in the
Senate.
– ‘Fight like hell’ –
The January 6 violence continues to reverberate in Washington. Prosecutors
have charged some 180 people in the attacks, according to a tally by the
George Washington University Program on Extremism, and hundreds more are
under investigation.
The Justice Department has suggested it could build a case for seditious
conspiracy by some Trump-supporting extreme-right groups in the attack.
In a White House rally just before the attack, Trump encouraged supporters
to reject the election results and to “fight like hell.”
While Democrats will make such statements the focus of their case, Trump’s
lawyers will hone in on the question of constitutionality.
Conviction requires support of two-thirds of the 100 senators, who serve as
judges and jury in the trial.
But last week 45 of 50 Republican senators made clear in a vote they think
trying an ex-president is unconstitutional.