Rep. Jim Jordan said former President Donald Trump must be acquitted after he indicated the impeachment trial starting on Tuesday is deleterious to "important constitutional rights."
"After all the bluster and rhetoric from the House Democrat managers, the Senate must acquit President Trump because the facts and the Constitution are on his side," the Ohio Republican wrote in a Fox News op-ed.
While Jordan argued that rioters who swarmed the Capitol last month must be held accountable, he claimed that Trump is not guilty of the charge of inciting an insurrection.
"Far from inciting violence, President Trump urged listeners to 'peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,'" he continued. "Those who failed to heed the President’s advice and who committed the acts of violence must be held accountable. But Democrats cannot seriously accuse President Trump of inciting violence when he specifically called for peaceful protests."
Reasoning that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts's not presiding over the impeachment proceedings was evidence of the trial's illegitimacy, Jordan said Democrats are violating a host of constitutional rights, including due process for Trump.
"Democrats … ignored the Constitution. Democrats afforded President Trump no due process in the House of Representatives. In fact, there was no process whatsoever — no witnesses, no depositions, no hearings, no cross-examinations," he wrote, adding that the Democrats' threat that Trump's refusal to testify may be construed as proof of his guilt represents a further "trampling" of "important constitutional rights."
The Constitution stipulates that the chief justice of the Supreme Court preside over presidential impeachment proceedings. In light of Roberts's absence, the president pro tempore of the Senate, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, is filling in as presiding officer. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed that Leahy will serve as a juror in the final vote despite his role as arbitrator, leading to questions about the trial's fairness.
Republicans have further questioned the trial's legitimacy by pointing to remarks from Democratic public figures apparently calling for politically motivated violence. Sen. Rand Paul called for certain Democrats to face trial for past rhetoric if Trump is to be impeached for his words at a rally in Washington, D.C., urging followers to march to the Capitol in protest of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6.
“I’ve spoken out against the words of many on my side, including those of President Trump,” the Kentucky Republican wrote in an op-ed for Fox News. “But where is the other side? Where were they all last year when political violence ravaged our cities, when people could barely dine or walk the streets in many places? When businesses burned and people were injured or killed by mobs?”
The incidents Paul identified as impeachable offenses include Schumer publicly telling Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh that they would "pay the price" for unfavorable court rulings and Rep. Maxine Waters encouraging a crowd to "push back on" Trump Cabinet officials in public in 2018.
Democrats have dismissed concerns from Republicans such as Jordan and Paul about the trial's fairness, arguing that Trump's conduct was too injurious to ignore. The House impeachment managers defended the logistics of the proceedings in a reply to Trump's legal defense, which has argued that Trump's speech at the rally was protected by the First Amendment and the trial is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office.
"President Trump's incitement of insurrection was itself a frontal assault on the First Amendment," they wrote, adding later that the United States is "governed by the rule of law, not mob violence."
Schumer, who advanced the matter to trial as majority leader, supported the House's contention that the process is legitimate and that Trump must be held to account for his actions.
"Former President Trump committed, in the view of many, including myself, the greatest offense ever committed by a president of the United States," he said. “The Senate will conduct a trial of the former president, and senators will render judgment on his conduct.”
Trump faces a charge of incitement of insurrection for his statements and actions surrounding the siege of Congress as lawmakers counted electoral votes and worked to affirm President Biden's victory on Jan. 6. The House impeached the former president on Jan. 13, just one week before he was set to leave office. A two-thirds vote is needed to obtain a conviction. Trump was previously impeached in December of 2019 on two Ukraine-related charges, but he was acquitted in the GOP-controlled Senate.
