Former U.S. President Donald Trump targets impeachment facing several civil lawsuits and some potential for criminal fees.
Trump targets impeachment and hopes to emerge from Jan. 6 case
On several fronts, Donald Trump faces the possibility of criminal fees, but these prosecutions are not the only concerns for the former president and lawyers.
Rather, the Republican also faces several civil lawsuits stemming from his role in prosecuting a recent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The first of these cases was brought by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) in March and as NBC News reported yesterday, Trump’s team is happy to let the case go away.
For the most part, lawyers representing the former president made predictable arguments to a federal judge while asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
Or, as a TPM report put it, “The Senate’s failure to convict Donald Trump of inciting the Jan.
6 insurrection on Capitol Hill means he can’t be held accountable in any way, the former president argued in a court filing Monday.”
It doesn’t take a constitutional scholar to scoff at such an argument. The congressional impeachment process was, by definition, a political process.
A dubious majority of the House of Representatives sided with Trump, and a dubious majority of the Senate voted to convict him.
In fact, none other than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell debunked the Trump team’s argument, several months before it was taken to federal court.
Moments after the impeachment trial of the former president, McConnell delivered some memorable words on the Senate floor.
“There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for bringing about the events of that day. There is no question,” McConnell explained.
He continued, “It was an intense crescendo of conspiracy theories, orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else set our institutions on fire on his way out.”
