Senate

Hillary Clinton: Trump acquittal ‘will be because the jury includes his co-conspirators’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested in a tweet Wednesday that an acquittal in former President Trump’s impeachment trial would only come as a result of “the jury includ[ing] his co-conspirators.”

“If Senate Republicans fail to convict Donald Trump, it won’t be because the facts were with him or his lawyers mounted a competent defense. It will be because the jury includes his co-conspirators,” Clinton tweeted Wednesday.

Clinton’s tweet came after the second day of arguments from House impeachment managers before the Senate. Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) attempted to draw a direct line between the rioters and the former president, citing at least one person reading a tweet from Trump attacking the vice president over a megaphone during the riot.

Impeachment managers also introduced never-before-seen footage of Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman apparently directing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) away from the House side of the Capitol.

Romney later told reporters he had been unaware of his proximity to the rioters before viewing the footage, saying “It was obviously very troubling to see the great violence that our Capitol Police and others were subjected to. It tears at your heart and brings tears to your eyes. That was overwhelmingly distressing and emotional.”

The Senate is unlikely to secure the two-thirds majority necessary to convict the former president, which would set up a subsequent vote to bar him from holding future office. However, after only five Republicans voted that the trial itself was constitutional earlier this year, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) joined them this week.