Trump impeachment LIVE updates: Trial against former US president over Capitol Hill riot incitement continues

Summary

  • Donald Trump’s lawyers are mounting their defence in the former president’s impeachment trial in the US Senate.
  • Senators have been asked to convict Trump of inciting insurrection via his comments and tweets prior to a violent mob of his supporters storming the Capitol on January 6.
  • Trump’s team are expected to argue that the impeachment is unconstitutional and that the former president’s speech on January 6 is protected by the First Amendment.
  • Trump is expected to be acquitted because conviction requires two-thirds of senators to vote in favour, and the Senate is made up of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.
  • Trump could be acquitted as early as Saturday, local time, making it the fastest impeachment trial in history.

Trump’s defence to take only four hours

Jason Miller, an adviser to Donald Trump, says today will be a “day of truth”.

He has told Fox News that Trump’s legal team will argue that the impeachment hearing is unconstitutional, that the former president’s speech to his supporters on January 6 was protected by the First Amendment, and that the Democrats “selectively edited” footage during their case.

Amid reports that Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders was seen napping during the Democrats’ testimony, Miller said: “I would just say to Senator Sanders, you might want to stay awake today.”

Miller also appeared to endorse reports that Trump’s lawyers will only take four out of their 16 allocated hours to mount their defence.

Trump could be acquitted as soon as Saturday

So if Trump’s team only uses four of the 16 allotted hours, we could see the Senate move to a question session of around four hours.

That would mean closing arguments could be put forward as early as Saturday, local time, followed by deliberation and a final vote the same day (Sunday morning AEDT).

Bruce Castor will defend Donald Trump at the former president’s impeachment trial.Credit:AP

When the vote comes, it is all but expected that Trump will be acquitted because a conviction requires around two-thirds of senators to vote for it and the Senate is made up of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.

As we have already heard from Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump, the former president’s legal team will argue that today’s proceedings are unconstitutional.

That debate was already had on Tuesday and Trump’s team lost, with six Republicans joining the Democrats to vote for the impeachment to proceed.

However, although the Democrats won that vote, because the margin required for victory is lower, that gives us an indication of how the Republican senators will vote on the question of conviction and it will not be enough to pass the two-thirds threshold.

Trump’s lawyers to mount defence as impeachment trial resumes

Hello and welcome to our rolling coverage of Donald Trump’s impeachment hearing.

I’m Latika Bourke and I’ll be taking you through day four of the Senate hearing, which kicks off around noon local time, or 4am AEDT.

Day three saw the Democrat House impeachment managers wrap up their case. They urged Republicans to consider the national security implications of the January 6 riot, and to consider what the implications would be if they let Trump get off for inciting the Capitol siege.

Read more from our Washington correspondent Matthew Knott: ‘Trump sent them there’: Democrats wrap up impeachment case

Recap our live coverage from Friday: Trump impeachment as it happened: Trial continues against former US president Donald Trump over Capitol Hill riot

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