Trump lawyer David Schoen blames ‘hoax’ video for poor performance and promises to do better

Trump impeachment defence attorney David Schoen blasted Democrats for their 13-minute video showing the chronological order of events during the Capitol riot, saying that it was an attempt to "trick the American people".

Speaking to fellow Trump booster Sean Hannity on Fox News, Mr Schoen said: "It's very easy to stand up and show spliced and manufactured films. Literally, the Democrats, the House managers, hired a large movie company and a large law firm to put together this thing.

"It's a matter of tricking the American people, to play as if the rioting was going on in real-time with the speech. What's the purpose of that? Why do we want to trick the American people? It's sending a very dangerous and wrong message, and it's a hoax I'm sorry to say," Mr Scheon said.

Showing the entire course of events minute by minute would take between three and eight hours as it took police three hours to clear the building and eight hours to also clear the surrounding grounds.

An impeachment trial is a political process, affected by the court of public opinion, and does not function as a regular court of law.

"That videotape would never go into evidence in any court in the world today. It's a spliced tape, showing what they want to show," Mr Schoen continued.

Read more: Follow live updates on Trump's second impeachment trial

He added: "There's nothing they showed today that in any way ties this to Donald Trump. It's just a silly argument, it's not tied to Donald Trump and his speech whatsoever."

The first Trump impeachment defence lawyer to speak, Bruce Castor, was roundly criticised for his performance.

Mr Trump himself was furious at the performance of Mr Castor, reportedly screaming at the TV as he spoke.

Alan Dershowitz who represented Mr Trump in his first impeachment trial, told Newsmax: “There is no argument. I have no idea what he's doing. I have no idea why he’s saying what he’s saying,” about the performance of Mr Castor.

Mr Schoen told Fox News that Mr Castor had not expected to speak on Tuesday and that he would be better prepared if he was to speak later in the trial.

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said Mr Castor "just rambled on and on and on and didn't really address the constitutional argument".

Republican Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who switched sides since the last vote on the constitutionality of the trial and voted with Democrats on Tuesday, said that Mr Trump’s legal team did a “terrible job” and was “disorganized,” “random” and “did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand".

Mr Cassidy told reporters: "Now if I'm an impartial juror, and one side is doing a great job, and the other side is doing a terrible job, on the issue at hand, as an impartial juror, I'm going to vote for the side that did the good job."

Responding to the criticism from Mr Cassidy, Mr Schoen said: “I'm sorry he felt that way. I’ll have to do better next time.”

Republican Maine Senator Susan Collings said Mr Castor "did not seem to make any arguments at all, which was an unusual approach to take".

Mr Schoen told reporters that he hadn't yet spoken to Mr Trump but that he didn't think any adjustments would be made. Mr Castor, whose meandering monologue was said to be aimed at lowering the temperature before the appearance of Mr Schoen, said he thought it had been a "good day" and that he didn't expect there to be any changes made to the Trump legal team despite the mountain of criticism levelled against the legal team and towards Mr Castor in particular.

Mr Trump split with his original impeachment defence team about a week before the Senate trial was to begin, partly because Trump wanted them to espouse his baseless claims of election fraud, something the lawyers were not ready to do.