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US President Donald Trump speaks to supporters from The Ellipse near the White House on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. – Thousands of Trump supporters, fueled by his spurious claims of voter fraud, are flooding the nation’s capital protesting the expected certification of Joe Biden’s White House victory by the US Congress. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski \/ AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
By Jeffrey Rodack | NEWSMAX<\/p>\n
Former President Donald Trump\u2019s attorneys are denying he incited the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol or tried to interfere with the formalizing of President Joe Biden\u2019s election win.<\/p>\n
Their claims are part of a\u00a0brief<\/a>\u00a0filed with the Senate\u00a0ahead of the impeachment trial scheduled to begin next week. The brief was detailed in reports by\u00a0Politico<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The New York Times.<\/a><\/p>\n “It is denied that President Trump incited the crowd to engage in destructive behavior,” Trump’s legal team wrote.<\/p>\n They said his words to the protesters \u2014 \u201cIf you don\u2019t fight like hell, you\u2019re not going to have a country anymore\u201d \u2014 were protected by his First Amendment right of free speech.<\/p>\n They also claimed they were not meant as a reference to violent action, but \u201cabout the need to fight for election security in general.\u201d<\/p>\n His lawyers argued that Trump believed he won the general election and was within his rights to \u201cexpress his belief that the election results were suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInsufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th president\u2019s statements were accurate or not, and he therefore denies they were false,\u201d the lawyers wrote, adding that Trump \u201cdenies\u201d it is false to say he won the election.<\/p>\n And Trump\u2019s lawyers maintained the Constitution does not permit the Senate to try a former president.<\/p>\n