Former president Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team will finish its case Friday, Trump’s senior adviser Jason Miller wrote in a tweet Thursday.
That means Trump’s defense team will use less than two days to defend the former president, who was impeached last month for inciting an insurrection. House impeachment managers are expected to wrap up their arguments Thursday after beginning on Wednesday. The trial could now conclude as soon as this weekend after Trump attorney David Schoen, an observant Jew, withdrew a request to not work sundown Friday through Saturday.
This trial is all but certain to be shorter than Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020. Trump is widely expected to be acquitted, with Senate Republicans signaling they will not vote to convict Trump. The Senate voted Tuesday that the trial was constitutional, with six GOP Senators joining Democrats. A conviction would require votes from all 50 Democrats plus 17 Republicans.
While the president’s acquittal is likely, Trump’s attorneys, Bruce Castor and Schoen, have faced criticism, including from the former president himself, for a meandering performance on Tuesday.
One of the Republican senators who voted that the trial was constitutional, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, said that Trump’s defense did a “terrible job,” arguing that they “didn’t talk about the issue at hand” and “had nothing,” Cassidy said. The Louisiana Republican had previously voted that the trial was unconstitutional.
“If anyone disagrees with my vote and would like an explanation, I ask them to listen to the arguments presented by the House Managers and former President Trump’s lawyers,” Cassidy wrote in a statement. “The House managers had much stronger constitutional arguments. The president’s team did not.”
Schoen defended the team’s performance speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday, saying the team “will be very well prepared in the future.”