Lawyer Michael van der Veen argues Trump did not incite violence on Jan. 6
Trump defense lawyer Michael van der Veen began his team's opening arguments declaring that Trump's Jan. 6 speech on the White House ellipse was not an incitement to violence.
"No thinking person could seriously believe that the president's January 6 speech on the ellipse was in any way an incitement to violence or insurrection. This suggestion is patently absurd on its face," he told senators.
Van der Veen said that Trump instead encouraged his supporters at his rally "to exercise their rights peacefully and patriotically." He said that the president laid out a series of legislative steps that should be taken such as passing voter ID legislation, banning ballot harvesting and requiring proof of citizenship and "turning out strong in the next primaries."
"These are not the words of someone inciting a violent insurrection," the lawyer said. "His entire challenge to the election results was squarely focused on how the proper civic process could address any concerns to the established legal and constitutional system."
House managers have argued that Trump clearly incited the attack on the Capitol when he told his supporters that they needed to "fight" back.
The trial resumes
The Senate impeachment trial got underway just after noon on Friday with the former president's legal team beginning its defense presentation.
Michael van der Veen began the arguments for the defense. They have up to 16 hours to speak, but the defense team said they only expected to speak for three to four hours.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said there will be short breaks about every two hours and a longer dinner break at around 5pm.
Shattered glass from doors of Capitol's East Front to be 'preserved'
Laura Condeluci, a spokeswoman for the Architect of the Capitol, says the shattered windows in the East Front doors, which were repaired Thursday, would be saved.
“The broken panes of glass removed today from the historic Columbus Doors at the east entrance of the Rotunda were preserved," Condeluci said Thursday in response to a question from NBC News. "The broken panes were replaced with new glass.”
Asked what they will do with the glass, she said, “Moving forward, we are looking at options to display a collection from January 6.”
Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Mo., told NBC News that he and Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., are drafting a letter today to “encourage that it be enshrined in a display next to the door from which it came.”
Phillips said he has notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of his letter, and she “seems very amenable.”
In addition to preservation, they ask that the panels be “prominently displayed for future generations to bear witness to the events of that day and the fragility of our democracy.”
In their letter, the congressmen list a number of other examples of “impressions of our history” that can be found around the Capitol including a bullet hole from the 1954 attack by Puerto Rican nationalists.
“We believe these items must be preserved as a symbol to those who remain, and to educate future Americans about the fragility of our union and the preciousness of our democracy." the wrote in their letter.
Sen. Whitehouse rejects rhetorical equivalence argument
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said Friday that he rejects the idea that there's no difference between Trump's rhetoric preceding the Jan. 6 attack and the comments of Democratic leaders last year after the death of George Floyd.
Asked about his response to the defense's expected equivalency argument in an interview with CNN, Whitehouse said, "It's false and the obvious differentiation is the events of January 6. We actually had a mob that was, in fact, incited and that came up to the Capitol and that looted and ransacked the place with the intention of disrupting the constitutional process of transfer of power, and did so at the behest of and at the direction of Donald Trump."
"It's really impossible to compare that to anything else," Whitehouse continued. "There's a lot of, you know, political rhetoric out there. This was different and the prosecution showed it."
Whitehouse said the Trump defense team is "trying to hang on for dear life" and that "they can still blow this."
GOP senators met with Trump legal team to discuss 'strategy'
Trump's legal team met with Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Thursday afternoon after the House managers rested their case.
Graham was spotted leaving the meeting, saying, "See you tomorrow."
Cruz said they were "discussing their legal strategy and sharing our thoughts."
The meeting raised eyebrows, as senators who will be voting on whether to convict Trump were also strategizing with his legal team. But they're just following in the footsteps of Mitch McConnell, who as Senate majority leader during Trump's first impeachment trial said he was "coordinating with the White House counsel."
"There will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this," McConnell, R-Ky., said at the time.
Trump defense attorney David Schoen told reporters after the meeting: "I think it's the best practice here in impeachment. There's nothing about this thing that has any semblance of due process whatsoever."
Schoen says Trump defense arguments might take just 3 to 4 hours
Trump's lawyer David Schoen said his team thinks it will need only a few hours to deliver its defense arguments.
Speaking to reporters after the House managers finished their arguments Thursday, Schoen said Trump's team may go for about "three to four hours, something like that," on Friday.
He also criticized the case made by the House managers, saying they had turned the evidence into "an entertainment piece," which he said was "horrific."
Managers expect 'distraction campaign' from Trump defense team, senior aides say
Senior aides on the House impeachment managers' team told reporters Friday morning that they expect a "distraction campaign" from the Trump's defense team when the trial begins in the afternoon.
“I have no doubt that there will be very little substantive defense presented today by the defense because there is no defense," an aide said.
The aides said that they expected to hear legal arguments from Trump's defense team that are “extraordinarily dangerous in a Constitutional republic."
They said they expect the former president's lawyers, for example, to present the Democrats' incitement argument against Trump as limited only to the one speech he gave on Jan. 6, but the managers have made it clear during their two days of presentations that Trump's rhetoric about the election being rigged predated that rally by many months.
The aides also said they expect the defense team will show clips of Democrats using incendiary rhetoric to try to establish some kind of equivalency. But “like so much of what Trump’s lawyers might say, that’s a gimmick, it’s a parlor game meant to inflame partisan hostility and play on our division," they said.
Here's what comes next in the Senate impeachment trial
With the House managers having wrapped their case on Thursday, the Senate impeachment trial will move into its next phase — the defense's presentation.
Like the prosecution, the defense will have a maximum of 16 hours to present its case, though, like the House managers, they may choose to use less than that allotted time.
Following their presentation, senators will have the opportunity to ask questions of both the House managers and the defense. They could then vote on whether to request additional documents and witnesses, although that is not currently expected.
Should no additional documents and witnesses be requested, a total of four hours will be given so each side can make their closing arguments before the Senate will advance to voting on whether to convict the president.