Bruce Castor and Michael van der Veen fared rather better on Friday than in their opening statements
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If nothing else, the Trump defence team was brief, using a fraction of the 16 hours which were allotted to make former president’s case for acquittal.
The message was simple, this was a witch hunt, not a trial. It was, in the soundbite of the day, an exercise in “constitutional cancel culture”.
Mr Trump had been denied “due process”, the lawyers complained, adding that his legal team had not been given time to review the evidence properly.
Far from inciting violence, Mr Trump had pleaded for calm – his lawyers argued.
Democrats, they said, were guilty of hypocrisy in pursuing Mr Trump given their stance on the Black Lives Matter protests last year.
It’s all about free speech
For Donald Trump’s legal team, the trial centred on his right to free speech.
It was the point hammered home by Bruce Castor, who insisted that Mr Trump was protected by the First Amendment.
The same argument was made by another of Mr Trump’s lawyers, Michael van der Veen.
He said the trial “poses a serious threat to freedom of speech for political leaders of all parties in every level of government.”
Mr van der Veen even called in James Wilson, one of the earliest justices on the Supreme Court and an expert on impeachment, in aid of his case.
Wilson’s doctrine was that lawful and constitutional conduct – in this case Mr Trump exercising his first amendment rights – could not be used as grounds for impeachment.
The Trump team insisted that the former president wanted a peaceful protest.
If the insurrection was pre-planned, as the Democrats argued, Mr Trump’s remarks on January 6 could not have incited the riot.
Read more: The case against Trump: What the prosecution claim
What do you mean by ‘fight’?
A key plank of the house managers’ case rested on Mr Trump’s urging his supporters to “fight” what he regarded as a rigged election.
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore," he said as thousands of supporters prepared to march on the Capitol.
For the Trump legal team, the term “fight” was rhetorical and should not be taken as a literal call to arms.
They called in evidence a raft of occasions when Democrats had used similar language.
The evidence included a nine-minute video in which assorted Democrats pledged to fight – and in the case of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders “fight like hell”.
On a few occasions Mr Biden went further, saying were he in high school he would take Mr Trump behind the gym and “beat the hell out of him.”
Trump's lawyers pointed to aggressive language by Joe Biden, accusing Democrats of being hypocrites
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‘Constitutional cancel culture’
According to the Trump team, the impeachment was little more than a witch hunt.
The real intention, the former president’s lawyers argued, was to deny the political rights of those who voted for Mr Trump in November.
Mr van der Veen said the hearings were little more than an act of political vengeance by Democrats who, he alleged, were not averse to manipulating evidence and selectively editing videos to make their point.
‘This unprecedented effort is not about Democrats opposing political violence. It is about Democrats trying to disqualify their political opposition. It is constitutional cancel culture.”
Trump not the first to contest an election
Mr Trump is hardly the first candidate to challenge the result of a presidential election.
The Democrats also had form and the Trump team played videoclips of challenges to the 2016 result.
With a certain amount of relish, they pointed out that Joe Biden – who as vice president presided over the confirmation – repeatedly used his gavel to rule them out of order.
Senators John Barrasso, left, and Joe Manchin, are supporters of the former president
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Republicans impressed with legal team
After Bruce Castor’s rambling opening remarks, the former president’s legal team put up a rather more pugnacious display.
The body language of several Republican senators suggested they were rather happier.
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina – one of Mr Trump’s staunchest allies — and John Barrasso of Wyoming reportedly nodded enthusiastically when Mr van der Veen reminded the chamber of the violence which accompanied the Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
Kevin Cramer of North Dakota appeared to be laughing and beaming as David Schoen mounted his defence of Mr Trump.
The Democrats need to persuade 17 Republicans to desert Mr Trump and back impeachment. This is not looking likely.
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