'Happier now': Trump 'relaxed' despite looming impeachment trial
An ex-senior advisor for Donald Trump claims the former US president is happy and relaxed after leaving the White House and being banned from Twitter.
Trump lost the 2020 US election to Joe Biden, but has continuously refused to accept the outcome.
Despite challenging the result in a number of states there was no evidence of fraud and Trump failed to overturn it.
It all came to the fore on January 6 when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building.
The actions of his supporters led to Twitter permanently banning Trump from its platform.
Jason Miller, a former campaign strategist for Trump, told the UK’s The Sunday Times despite an upcoming impeachment trial the former US president was finally “relaxed”.
“The president has said he feels happier now than he’s been in some time,” Miller told the paper.
"He’s said that not being on social media, and not being subject to the hateful echo chamber that social media too frequently becomes, has actually been good.”
He added Trump did not feel concerned about the impeachment trial because he believes “there is no real scenario” in which he faces conviction.
Trump impeachment trial awaits
National security lawyer Bradley Moss said Trump laid the groundwork with his supporters for months, making baseless accusations the election had been fraudulent, and encouraging supporters to attend the rally and march on the Capitol to interrupt a constitutionally-protected process in the transfer of power.
Alan Dershowitz, the Constitutional scholar who defended Trump in his first impeachment trial, told Reuters Trump's best defence was to argue the US Senate proceeding due to begin on Tuesday was unconstitutional because he was no longer a sitting president and because his comments were covered by the First Amendment guarantee of free speech.
“I think the strongest arguments are against the Senate having jurisdiction over a president whose term has been ended by an election,” he said.
Moss said that position would make lame duck presidents immune to impeachment.
“In theory, if you were to follow that argument from the Trump lawyers, he could have committed any range of impeachable offences and then resigned and have been immune from an impeachment inquiry. He could have high-tailed it off to another country and been outside the jurisdiction of the criminal law,” he said.
Moss also pointed out the impeachment began while Trump was president, and was presented to then-House Majority leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Republican, who did not take the matter to trial until Trump's term had ended.
A majority of constitutional law experts assert it is lawful to hold an impeachment trial after a president leaves office.
They assert that presidents who commit misconduct late in their terms should not be immune from the very process the US Constitution created to hold them accountable.
with Reuters
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