‘Have him testify’: Democrats dare Trump impeachment lawyers to provide exculpatory evidence

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Griffin Connolly
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Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin has asked Donald Trump questions about 6 January that are likely to go unanswered. (Getty Images)
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin has asked Donald Trump questions about 6 January that are likely to go unanswered. (Getty Images)

As the second impeachment trial against Donald Trump entered its final phase on Friday, lead House manager Jamie Raskin issued a dare to the former president to appear before them and explain what he was doing during the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

Mr Trump’s attorney Michael van der Veen repeatedly harangued the impeachment managers during the trial’s question-and-answer portion on Friday for failing to conduct a thorough “investigation” to support their claim that the ex-president incited that insurrection and failed to adequately turn the rioters away once it had commenced.

The House managers relied solely on “hearsay” reports from the media and the contents of the president’s tweets and public video statements from that day, Mr van der Veen suggested.

Mr Raskin fired back that Mr Trump has “sole possession” of the evidence of what he was doing during the attack, and has so far refused to answer lawmakers’ questions.

“Rather than yelling at us and screaming about how we didn't have time to get all of the facts about what your client did,” Mr Raskin said, “bring your client up here and have him testify under oath about why he was sending out tweets denouncing the vice president of the United States while the vice president was being hunted down by a mob that wanted to hang him and was chanting, in this building, ‘Hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence! Traitor, traitor, traitor!’”

With an historic level of bipartisan support, the House voted to impeach Mr Trump on 13 January for his role in the riot that took place just one week earlier.

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