In the Senate, arguments from both sides began to take shape.

Democratic lawmakers due to service prosecutors called Trump singularly responsible for the deadly January 6th attack on the capital, while attorneys for the former president said the Senate lacks the authority to conduct his tri ALS now that he has left office.

Trump's lawyers focused on an argument that last week won the support of 45 Senate Republicans in a failed vote to dismiss the case that the tri ALS is unconstitutional.

But Reuters legal correspondent Yon Wolf says that while some legal experts agree, most do not.

The majority of you is that this sort of quote unquote late impeachment is constitutional, and if it weren't a president could engage in all kinds of misconduct in his final weeks in office and escape accountability under the one mechanism there is for that accountability.

Still, challenging Trump's impeachment on the grounds that the Senate lacks constitutional authority could enable his fellow Republicans to vote against conviction without directly defending Trump's rhetoric and role in the attack.

In briefs filed with the Senate on Tuesday, Trump's team denied he had incited violence when he told supporters to quote, Fight like hell shortly before they stormed the capital.

We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not gonna have a country anymore.

Saying his remarks were protected under the First Amendment, the First Amendment probably does cover what Trump said to have incited violence under some Supreme Court decisions.

You really have toe have prompted imminent lawless action, so he has a defense there.

But it's sort of besides, the point to counter argument is that just because your speech is protected by the First Amendment doesn't mean you can't be impeached doesn't mean you can't lose your job.

The First Amendment here in the US protects all sorts of vile speech from racist slurs toe denying the Holocaust promoting fascism.

No one really doubts that if the president did that every day, he could be impeached, so it's sort of a non secular.

Trump's brief was filed by his new lawyer just days after Trump parted ways with his initial legal team amid a reported dispute over his defense to secure a conviction.

A two thirds majority is needed, meaning that 17 Republicans would need to join the Senate's 50 Democrats in the vote, a daunting hurdle on Lee.

If he is convicted, can the Senate then vote to bar him from holding future office?

Still, Democrats are pushing forward with the trial writing Tuesday quote.

He summoned a mob toe.

Washington exhorted them into a frenzy and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue.