‘It has to be dramatic, it has to be big’: Trump allies urge impeachment team to focus on election conspiracy

Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial in the Senate will be a performative spectacle promoting debunked conspiracy theories of rampant voter fraud when it kicks off next week — that is, if some of the former president’s closest allies get their way.  Steve Bannon, the ex-White House chief strategist charged with fraud over a border wall fundraising scheme, acknowledged the Democratic Party has a “compelling” case against Mr Trump. 

In an interview published on Friday with Politico, Mr Bannon said: “He is not going to be convicted, so we must address November 3rd. And the best place to adjudicate this is the well of the US Senate.” 

“It has to be dramatic,” he added. “It has to be big. It has to be the big lie versus the big steal.”

Reports have indicated the former president wanted his legal team to focus on his false claims of a rigged election, leading to five attorneys fleeing from his side less than two weeks before the trial. Those lawyers were replaced by Bill Castor, a former district attorney most known for declining to prosecute Bill Cosby, and David Schoen, a lawyer who has bragged about representing “all sorts of reputed mobster figures” in court.

According to Politico, many of Mr Trump’s advisers have urged his team not to focus on the deadly Capitol riots last month that followed his nearby rally, where he gave a 70-minute speech in which he refused to concede and said: “If you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.”

The US House of Representatives impeached Mr Trump for fomenting the deadly insurrection, the first time in American history a president has been impeached twice. Senate Democrats would require at least 17 Republicans to join them in voting to convict Mr Trump in order to pave the way to bar him from ever holding elected office again. 

However, it seems unlikely the Senate will convict Mr Trump after a majority of Republican senators voted against holding the trial while challenging the constitutionality of impeaching a former president. 

“The Democrats have a very emotional and compelling case,” Mr Bannon told Politico. “They’re going to try to convict him in the eyes of the American people and smear him forever.”

Some said the team should not focus on the false claims of voter fraud, including Alan Dershowitz, who told the news outlet it would be a “serious mistake” for Mr Castor and Mr Schoen to revisit such conspiracy theories. The Politico report said the attorneys were planning on addressing the constitutionality of the trial, which has been a subject of debate among experts.  Still, many constitutional scholars have said the trial was fair game, with some noting how the impeachment began in the House under Mr Trump’s tenure in the White House. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to hold the trial last month, calling the decision of 45 GOP senators to vote against the proceedings “deeply irresponsible” in a speech. 

"Only five Republican senators were willing to take a principled stand against this reckless and ill-advised effort by members of this body who are eager to excuse President Trump's campaign to overturn the election and apparently to excuse his incitement of the mob that every one of us experienced in this Capitol," he said. "I would simply say to all of my colleagues, make no mistake, there will be a trial, and the evidence against the former president will be presented in living color for the nation and every one of us to see once again."