Trump Impeachment Defense to Present Arguments Friday

Former President Donald Trump's legal team will present its defense Friday in Trump's impeachment trial. Trump is charged with inciting insurrection leading to the deadly U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6. The lawyers are expected to take three to four hours to make their case beginning around noon ET; they're likely to argue that Trump's speech and actions are First Amendment-protected, and that there's not enough evidence to conclude that Trump incited the breach. House impeachment managers — a team of nine Democrats acting as prosecutors in the trial — spent Wednesday and Thursday presenting senators with evidence to support the case for Trump's conviction, including graphic video of the Capitol violence. A final vote on impeachment could happen as soon as Saturday. A conviction would require 67 Senate votes; senators voted 56-44 earlier this week to proceed with the trial. Coverage from all sides continued to frame a conviction as unlikely, and focused on predicting how Trump's defense would play out. Some reports from right-rated sources projected that Trump's defense would move to frame Democrats as hypocritical by pointing out past examples of Democrat leaders using incendiary rhetoric.