Trump’s Impeachment Lawyers Misspell ‘United States’ Twice In Trial Filing
Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyers have been widely mocked for misspelling ‘United States’ twice in a trial filing.
Critics have been, erm, united in their gleefull roasting of the 14-page filing, which was also found to be packed with various baseless claims about the 2020 election, as well as unusual and widely criticized legal argument as to why the Senate cannot vote to impeach Trump.
In the filing, legal representatives Bruce Castor and David Schoen addressed members of the United States Senate, which they misspelled as ‘members of the Unites States’. The United States was also spelled incorrectly further on in the filing, opening up the lawyers to no end of mockery.
This filing marks Trump’s very first formal answer to the ‘incitement of insurrection’ charge put against him following the deadly Capitol riots of January 6.
As noted by The New York Times, it would appear that the brief had been ‘hastily assembled’, with Trump having shaken up his legal team a mere 48 hours before it needed to be filed.
Supreme Court lawyer, Neal Katyal, tweeted:
Trump’s Brief defending himself in impeachment is so on-brand. It begins by addressing itself to the ‘Members of the Unites States Senate’.
Meanwhile, politics writer Judd Legum said:
Trump’s formal answer to his impeachment starts off by misspelling ‘United States’.
It goes downhill from there.
a year agoTypos aside, the brief goes on to allege that the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ from Trump, stating that the twice impeached former president continues to ‘express his belief that the election results were suspect’.
As per this defence document:
Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th President’s statements were accurate or not, and he therefore denies they were false.
The legal team proceed to argue that the constitution ‘requires that a person actually hold office to be impeached’, asserting that Trump had been exercising his First Amendment right when he questioned the results of the November election.
Castor and Schoen have argued that the Senate cannot vote to impeach Trump as he is no longer in office.
They have also argued that Trump’s speech about the election results, made before the January 6 riots, did not incite the riots and is protected under the First Amendment:
The constitutional provision requires that a person actually hold office to be impeached. Since the 45th President is no longer ‘President,’ [the clause] shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for …’ is impossible for the Senate to accomplish.
However, as per CNN, the House impeachment managers have pushed back on this point in a brief filed Tuesday, February 2, stating that a ‘president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last’.
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Topics: News, Donald Trump, Impeachment, Now, United States, US Capitol
