Politico | House impeachment brief argues Donald Trump unmistakably responsible for US Capitol attack
- Convicting Trump would require a two-thirds vote, meaning that 17 Republicans would need to join the Senate’s 50 Democrats in voting to convict
- A conviction could lead to a second vote banning Trump from holding public office again
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Andrew Desiderio on politico.com on February 2, 2021.
Former US president Donald Trump bears “unmistakable” responsibility for the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol and should be barred from holding federal office, the House’s impeachment managers argued in their opening salvo for the Senate’s coming trial.
A week before the Senate is slated to put the ex-president on trial for a second time, the House’s first legal brief outlines a weeks-long campaign by Trump to overturn President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory based on unsubstantiated claims of election fraud – culminating in the insurrection at the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying Biden’s win.
“President Trump’s pursuit of power at all costs is a betrayal of historic proportions,” the House wrote in its opening brief. “It requires his conviction.”
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US House impeaches Trump for inciting deadly Capitol attack
Trump’s legal team filed its first official response to the House’s impeachment charge later on Tuesday, denying that the former president sought to subvert the election results and incited the violence at the Capitol.
