The legal team representing former United States president Donald Trump has filed its legal brief ahead of Tuesday’s start of the Senate impeachment trial, and according to legal experts, it is filled with “falsehoods,” “mischaracterized” work, “flat-out misrepresentations,” quotes from an internet conspiracy site, and typos.
Former Department of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, now a Chaired Professor NYU Law, puts it bluntly: “Trump brief is filled with falsehoods that Republican Senators personally know to be untrue.”
He adds that there were also “many reports of Republican members of Congress frantically trying to get Trump to issue a strong statement to get the insurrections to leave the Capitol.”
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now an MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst and University of Alabama law professor says, unflatteringly, “Trump’s lawyers continue to stay on brand.”
Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern points to Michigan State University College of Law professor Brian Kalt, who is quoted by Trump’s legal team, “quite badly.”
Kalt goes on to say there are “multiple examples” of “flat-out misrepresentations” of his work. Law & Crime says Kalt is “widely viewed as the leading expert in constitutional law dealing with the presidency, presidential pardons, impeachment, succession, and the 25th Amendment – and notes Trump’s legal team cited him 15 times.
Kalt says the Democratic House managers cited his work “honestly,” but Trump’s team was “disingenuous and misleading.”
Trump’s legal team actually cites Gateway Pundit, a far right wing conspiracy theory website whose founder was once known as the “stupidest man on the internet.” Twitter permanently suspended the Gateway Pundit account over the weekend.
And, of course, there are typos.