Lawyers for former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would not voluntarily testify at his impeachment trial next week, wasting little time to swat back an invitation by the House managers to answer questions under oath about his actions surrounding the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol.
In a letter to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, the lead House manager prosecuting the case, the lawyers called the request a “public relations stunt.”
“Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations against the 45th president of the United States, who is now a private citizen,” wrote the lawyers, Bruce Castor Jr. and David Schoen.
Schoen later clarified by text message that Trump did not plan to testify voluntarily. He accused Democrats in the House and Senate of running an unfair proceeding because they had yet to share even basic rules, such as how long the defense would have to present.
“I don’t think anyone being impeached would show up at the proceedings we firmly believe are unconstitutional,” Schoen said.
The House managers could still attempt to subpoena testimony from Trump during the trial, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday. But doing so would require support from a majority of the Senate.
In making his request, Raskin had said that the president’s formal response this week to the House’s “incitement of insurrection” charge had challenged “overwhelming evidence” about his conduct as the assault unfolded and demanded further explanation.
“In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, concerning your conduct on Jan. 6, 2021,” Raskin wrote. He had proposed conducting an interview “at a mutually convenient time and place” between Monday and Thursday.
In a filing Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers denied that he incited the attack or meant to disrupt Congress’ counting of electoral votes to formalize President Joe Biden’s victory, which was underway at the Capitol. They denied that when the former president told his followers to go to Capitol Hill and “fight like hell” that it “had anything to do with the action at the Capitol.” They also rejected that Trump had spread falsehoods about election fraud, asserting that because he believed that he “won it in a landslide,” he was merely exercising his First Amendment right.
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