Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense lawyer said the effort to convict him following his impeachment in the House is “completely unconstitutional.”
David Schoen explained his many problems with the process in a Monday night interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, among them partisanship and a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
“I think President Biden missed a great opportunity to be a statesman and to demand that this thing be called off, frankly,” he said. “This is the political weaponization of the impeachment process. There was a rush to judgment.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others have an agenda to “bar President Trump from ever running for president again,” Schoen argued. He called the move “about as undemocratic as you can get” and a “slap in the face” to Trump voters.
“This is a very, very dangerous road to take with respect to the First Amendment, putting at risk any passionate political speaker,” he said, adding later in the interview, “Sen. [Chuck] Schumer promised a fair and full trial. You can’t [have one] when you know that the juror and the judge are biased going in.”
Schoen’s addition to the Trump legal team was announced on Sunday. He and Bruce Castor joined the defense after Trump’s former lead lawyers left, reportedly over a disagreement on a legal strategy.
Trump was impeached by the House last month before he left office on a single charge of incitement of insurrection in connection to the siege of the U.S. Capitol. The Senate trial is set to begin on Feb. 9.
