4 Key Points About Trump and ‘Incitement’ Law
His words are in question: President Donald Trump speaks Jan. 6 at the rally of supporters that preceded the riot at the Capitol. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
If and when the Senate holds its second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, this time after he no longer is president, one argument in his defense may well be based on a legal precedent that has guided incitement cases since 1969.
The House of Representatives impeached the president Wednesday for “incitement to insurrection” because of Trump’s speech at a rally a week earlier as Congress began to debate objections to certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. That protest Jan. 6 turned into a deadly riot when a mob of hundreds overran security and broke into the Capitol.