Trump's lawyers warn of Republican retaliation, impeachment as political weapon

The historic second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump will open in the Senate on Tuesday, with his attorneys saying Mr. Trump is blameless for the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and accusing Democrats of exploiting the deadly riot for partisan gain.

Defense attorneys David Schoen and Bruce Castor said in a legal brief filed Monday that the impeachment trial is an act of “political theater” by Democrats who are still in the grips of “Trump derangement syndrome,” even though Mr. Trump left office on Jan. 20.

Mr. Trump’s legal team warned that the second trial could result in Republican retaliation someday by wielding impeachment as a political weapon to bar Democrats such as President Biden or Hillary Clinton from holding office again.

“Through this latest Article of Impeachment now before the Senate, Democrat politicians seek to carve out a mechanism by which they can silence a political opponent and a minority party,” Mr. Trump’s legal team said. “The Senate must summarily reject this brazen political act.”

Democratic House impeachment managers said Monday that the Senate must convict Mr. Trump and ban him from holding office again because of his role in “the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president.”

The Democrats rejected the Trump team’s “utterly baseless” claim that the president’s speech to a massive crowd of supporters in Washington before the riot was protected by the First Amendment.