Trump impeachment lawyer David Schoen insists Capitol riot was 'nothing' to do with the president, says he can't have a fair trial and warns Senate hearing will 'tear the country apart'
Donald Trump's impeachment lawyer has said the former president had 'nothing' to do with the Capitol riot as he warned the trial threatened to tear the country apart and damage American democracy.
David Schoen, the Atlanta-based lawyer appointed by Trump on Sunday, will defend him next week in his historic second impeachment trial.
On Monday Schoen, who previously represented Jeffrey Epstein, insisted that the trial of a former president was 'unconstitutional'.
He argued further that Trump was not to blame for the insurrection on January 6, which killed four people including a Capitol Police officer.
David Schoen appeared on Fox News on Monday night to discuss the impeachment trial
Schoen said that the storming of the Capitol after Trump's January 6 rally was not his fault
Trump, pictured leaving Washington on January 20, urged supporters to march to the Capitol
At a 'Stop the Steal' rally on the morning of January 6, Trump told his followers: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.'
Schoen said: 'He condemned violence at all times. Read the words of his speech. It calls for peacefulness.
'This has nothing to do with President Trump and the country doesn't need to just watch videos of riots and unrest. We need to heal now. We need to move forward.'
Schoen, who will represent Trump along with Bruce Castor, the former district attorney in Pennsylvania who declined to prosecute Bill Cosby, said the impeachment case was 'the most ill-advised legislative action that I've seen in my lifetime.'
He added: 'It is tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that.'
Schoen told Hannity that the January 6 riot 'has nothing to do with President Trump'
Schoen said the the process was being made a mockery because those involved had already made up their minds, before it had even started, and strongly criticized the 'awful bias and prejudgment shown.'
He continued: 'Could you imagine any American citizen considered to be on trial, in which the judge and jury has already announced publicly the defendant must be convicted in this case?
'It undercuts democracy. How could you possibly have a fair trial? Senator Schumer promised a fair and full trial. You can't when you know that they are biased going in.'
Trump was impeached by the House on January 13.
He appears highly likely to be cleared, for a second time, by the Senate after a procedural vote showed that Republicans were unlikely to convict him.
On January 26 the Senate was asked whether they wanted impeachment to proceed.
The Senate voted 55-45, meaning that impeachment will go ahead.
But it showed that regardless of what happens in the trial, there almost certainly won’t be enough Republican support to convict Trump: conviction would require 67 votes, or two-thirds of the Senate.
Schoen insisted that the trial was designed to end Trump's political future
Schoen said the trial was being held to damage Trump and bury him politically.
'This is the political weaponization of the impeachment process,' he told Sean Hannity on Fox News.
'There was a rush to judgment. Once President Trump became president, on the day he was elected, there were calls for his impeachment.'
He said the 'agenda' from the Democrats was to 'simply to bar President Trump from ever running for president again.'
Schoen added: 'And that is about as undemocratic as you could get.
'Can you imagine the slap in the face that is to the 75 million or more voters who voted for Donald Trump?'
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