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Lead Trump Impeachment Prosecutor Claims Trial Was 'Dramatic Success'

Lead Trump Impeachment Prosecutor Claims Trial Was 'Dramatic Success'

Despite Donald Trump being acquitted, Jamie Raskin said the former president was 'convicted in the court of public opinion'.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

The lead impeachment prosecutor for Donald Trump's second trial has hailed it a 'dramatic success', despite the former President being acquitted.

In what was largely expected, the 45th President was not found guilty of inciting an insurrection after Democrats failed to secure enough votes to convict him.

The final vote was 57-43, meaning that the Senate fell 10 votes short.

The impeachment charge related to Trump's alleged role in inciting the Capitol riots on January 6 that resulted in the death of five people.

Despite Democrats not getting the win they wanted, lead impeachment prosecutor Jamie Raskin said it was a 'dramatic success'.

He told NBC's Meet The Press: "It was by far the most bipartisan majority that's ever assembled in the Senate to convict a president, which has traditionally been a kind of partisan thing in American history.

"We got seven Republicans, and if you look at the 10 Republicans in the House who joined us, it was by far the most bipartisan decision and a complete repudiation of the president's conduct."

NBC

Even though he wasn't convicted of the charge, Mr Raskin reckons the damage to Trump's reputation has been more severe.

"I think that we successfully prosecuted him and convicted him in the court of public opinion and in the court of history," he said.

"He's obviously a major political problem for the Republican party and as long as he's out there attempting to wage war on American constitutional democracy he's a problem on all of us."

Prosecutors were criticised for not bringing more witnesses in for the trial.

But Mr Raskin's fellow House impeachment manager, Democratic Delegate Stacey Plaskett, said if they had done that the trial could have lasted weeks and still wouldn't have produced what they wanted.

Speaking on CNN, she said: "Just so the American public is aware, witnesses in a Senate hearing do not come and stand before the senators and make any statements. It's a deposition. It's videotaped and that is brought before the Senate.

PA

"So I know that people are feeling a lot of angst and believe that maybe if we had this the senators would have done what we wanted, but, listen, we didn't need more witnesses, we needed more senators with spines."

Every Democrat voted in favour of convicting Trump while seven Republicans joined them but it wasn't enough to find him guilty.

During the trial, Trump's lawyer, Michael Van der Veen, accused Mr Raskin of 'fabricating evidence' and committing 'fraud' in its presentations.

He said: "In short, this impeachment has been a complete charade from beginning to end. The entire spectacle has been nothing but the unhinge pursuit of a long-standing political vendetta against Mr Trump by the opposition party."

The acquittal means that Trump will be eligible to run for presidency again in 2024 if he wants to.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, Donald Trump