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Convict Trump as he is overwhelmingly guilty: Prosecutors urge US Senate over Capitol attack

WION Web Team
WashingtonUpdated: Feb 12, 2021, 08:59 AM IST
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Donald Trump Photograph:(Reuters)

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House impeachment managers rested their case after two days of arguments that included hours of graphic video from the assault on the Capitol.

US House prosecutors wrapped up their impeachment case against Donald Trump on Thursday urging the Senate to convict the former president for inciting the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

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Prosecutors also appealed barring Trump from ever holding office again. It is Trump's second impeachment trial.

"Senators, the evidence is clear. We showed you statements, videos, affidavits that prove President Trump incited an insurrection and that he alone had the power to stop and the fact that he didn't stop it, the fact that he incited a lawless attack and abdicated his duty to defend us from it, the fact that he actually further inflamed the mob, attacking his vice president while assassins were pursuing him (vice-president Mike Pence) in this capital, more than requires conviction and disqualification,"  Joe Neguse, Democrat from Colorado, impeachment manager, said.

"We humbly, humbly ask you to convict President Trump for the crime for which he is overwhelmingly guilty of, because if you don't, if we pretend this didn't happen or worse, if we let it go unanswered - who's to say it won't happen again?" Neguse added.

House impeachment managers rested their case after two days of arguments that included hours of graphic video from the assault on the Capitol. Trump supporters were seeking to halt certification of Democrat Joe Biden's November 3 election victory.

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy had joined Senate Democrats and five Republicans this week in a vote to confirm that the impeachment trial was, in fact, constitutional and should proceed.

Cassidy said he will wait to make a judgment after he hears both sides as he has a number of questions for the Trump defence team after the Democrats' presentation.

"You don't make a decision as a juror until you hear both sides, period, end of story and so that's why if you ask me the questions I wish to have addressed, I would like to have those addressed but I don't make a decision until I've heard the other side," Senator Bill Cassidy said.

US President Joe Biden has said that the devastating presentations by Democratic impeachment managers in the trial may have changed some Republicans' minds who until now were opposed to convicting the former president.

"I, like other Americans, watch the news. I didn't watch any of the hearing live because I was going straight through last night till a little after nine. But I watched some this morning. I think the Senate has a very important job to complete and I think, my guess is, some minds may have been changed, I don't know," President Joe Biden said.

Trump's lawyers will begin their defence on Friday.