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Trump impeachment draws commentary from Houston legal experts

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Published  February 9, 2021 5:31pm CST
You Decide
FOX 26 Houston

Donald Trump’s historic 2nd impeachment underway

The question at hand is whether President Donald Trump's rhetoric incited violence at the U.S. Capitol.

HOUSTON - Did the inflammatory words of former President Donald Trump ignite a tender box of deadly insurrection and the subsequent storming of America's Capitol?

If so, does the Constitution allow accountability for a Commander-in-Chief who has passed into private life for actions taken while leading the nation?

DETAILS: Senate votes to move forward with Trump’s 2nd impeachment trial after debating constitutionality

Constitutional Scholar Craig Jackson, who teaches at TSU's Thurgood Marshall School of Law, believes the framers did not envision an exit from the oval office as "protection" against prosecution for violations of law committed while under Presidential oath to protect and defend.

"I think they would have said that's not what we meant. We don't intend there to be a free pass, if you will, for crimes and misdemeanors, late in the term," said Jackson.

And yet conservative commentator and Houston attorney Gary Polland contends that while plenty of crimes were committed on Jan. 6, the now-former president was personally responsible for none of them.

"He has a First Amendment right to speak and say what he wants to say. I mean, how do you interpret from his speech that he's trying to incite people to go invade the Capitol, cause riots destruction and not listen to lawful authority? He didn't say that," said Polland, a former Harris County Republican Party Chairman.

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But Rice University Presidential scholar Paul Brace is advising Americans watching the trial with an open mind to focus on a fundamental issue at the core of the case against Trump.

"Did what President Trump said encourage those people to do what they did? Listening to them in their defenses now, those who have been indicted or otherwise arrested, they are all claiming they were doing what the President told them to do. They thought it," said Brace.