Trump's incitement charge a 'monstrous lie'
Donald Trump's insurrection incitement demand is a good "monstrous lie", defence legal professionals said as they presented evidence found in the US Senate.
Lawyer Michael van der Veen called impeachment proceedings against the former president a good "politically motivated witch hunt" by the Democrats.
Mr Trump is accused of leading to riots found in the Capitol on 6 January which remaining five people lifeless. He denies the fee.
Most Republicans have indicated they will not vote to convict Mr Trump.
The defence team took significantly less than four of its 16 hours, trying to go the impeachment trial to a speedy end.
After this, senators received four hours to ask questions of both sides.
Before, they sat through two days and nights of minute-by-minute accounts featuring video recording and audio footage, mainly because Democratic prosecutors sought to show that Donald Trump had a routine of condoning violence, had done nothing at all on the day to avoid the riot, and had expressed not any remorse.
They argued that an acquittal could visit a repeat attack on Congress.
On Fri, Mr van der Veen used his opening remarks to dispute the Democrats' circumstance that Mr Trump had incited violence during his speech to supporters on 6 January in Washington DC to try to stop Joe Biden's election victory being certified.
Mr Trump had built allegations of voter fraud and urged his supporters to converge at the Capitol creating a short while prior to the riot broke out.
However, the simple fact there is evidence among some groupings that violence have been pre-organized demonstrated "the ludicrousness of the incitement allegations against the [former] president", Mr van der Veen said, adding: "You can't incite that which was already likely to happen."
"To declare that the president at all wished, desired or perhaps encouraged lawless or violent behavior is definitely a preposterous and monstrous lie. In fact, the first two text messages the president directed via Twitter after the incursion at the Capitol began had been 'Stay Peaceful' and "No violence because we will be the party of laws and order,'" the lawyer said.
Telling the crowd they had a need to "battle like hell" was basically political speech, Mr van der Veen said.
Make no mistake, he told the senators, "that is an effort to smear, censor and cancel not merely President Trump, but the 75 million Us citizens who have voted for him".
The lawyer also argued that Mr Trump had a right to challenge the election result.
"In the past, numerous other applicants for president possess used lots of the same functions to pursue their very own election problems," Mr van der Veen stated, before showing a good montage of clips from 2017 when Democrats objected to the election effects that gave Mr Trump his success.
