WASHINGTON – A key element of former President Donald Trump's defense is the argument that he can't be convicted by the Senate because the Jan.
6 speech that House prosecutors say incited the attack on the Capitol is protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment. But many legal scholars dispute that the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech applies to impeachment proceedings at all or that it protects Trump even if it does have some bearing on his impeachment.
The First Amendment argument was part of a defense that sought to cast the impeachment as motivated by Democrats' hatred of Trump, but that also conceded he had lost the election — something the former president has never done.