House charges Trump is 'singularly responsible' for inciting insurrection

The House impeachment managers, in their brief filed Tuesday, pushed back directly on that point, which Senate Republicans have coalesced around as a reason to acquit Trump, arguing there is ample history and precedent to hold a trial and convict Trump, who was impeached by the House while still in office.

“There is no ‘January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution,” the managers wrote. “A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.”

House Democrats noted that Trump was impeached while he still was president, pushing back on Senate Republican arguments that Congress cannot impeach a former official. Still, they argued there’s a precedent for impeaching former officials, too, as there have been a handful of such cases in US history.

The House managers laid out their case against Trump in their 80-page brief filed Tuesday morning, in which they accused him of stirring up violence against Congress in an attempt to upend the peaceful transfer of power. They argued that the Senate should convict Trump and bar him from holding future office after he “threatened the constitutional system that protects the fundamental freedoms we cherish.”

“President Trump’s responsibility for the events of January 6 is unmistakable,” the House impeachment team wrote. “President Trump’s effort to extend his grip on power by fomenting violence against Congress was a profound violation of the oath he swore. If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense, it is hard to imagine what would be.”

Both the House impeachment managers and Trump’s legal team are expected to submit additional briefs ahead of the start of the trial on February 9. The legal briefings will provide the backdrop for a case in which the House impeachment managers face a skeptical Senate Republican conference….