Donald Trump must be convicted because he is “personally responsible” for the riot at the US Capitol, House Democrats have said.
They detail the former president’s “incitement of insurrection against the republic he swore to protect” in a pre-trial brief released Tuesday.
It calls for him to be disqualified from ever running for office again.
Mr Trump has repeatedly denied his words led to the riot on 6 January.
Prior to the armed insurrection, thousands gathered at a “Save America” rally near the White House and listened to Mr Trump, who urged his supporters to “fight like hell” because “we won [the election] by a landslide”.
House impeachment managers said the former president’s repeated refusal to concede the election to Joe Biden encouraged the riot.
Mr Trump’s “statements turned his ‘wild’ rally on January 6 into a powder keg waiting to blow”, the brief says.
Impeachment managers plan to use Mr Trump’s own words and video footage of the riot to say that “the furious crowd” was “primed (and prepared) for violence if he lit a spark”.
“The evidence is clear. When other attempts to overturn the presidential election failed, former President Trump incited an attack on the Capitol,” it reads.
Lawyers for Mr Trump will argue in next week’s impeachment trial that convicting a now-private citizen would be unconstitutional.
In response, the impeachment managers from the House say the Senate has jurisdiction to act because “a president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last”.
“This is not a routine corruption charge,” they wrote. “Trump has committed an impeachable offense of historic proportions.”
Unlike in the case of Mr Trump’s first impeachment last year, Democrats have not indicated that they will call any witnesses.
