Dan Abrams Warns House Dems’ ‘Strong Factual Case’ in Trump Impeachment Doesn’t Matter: ‘Senators are Making a Political Decision’

Mediaite founder and ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams argued that although House Democrats have had a stronger factual case throughout Donald Trump’s impeachment, legal analysis will be ultimately be irrelevant, as senators will make a “political decision.”

“Look, they have a strong factual case — a very strong factual case — and the Trump legal team has a relatively weak legal case, but with that said, they’re not doing legal analysis here. These judges, jurors, these senators, are making a political decision,” Abrams explained to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. 

Abrams went on to note that, in a typical trial, judges lay out the laws and rules that lawyers and jurors must abide by. But in this case: “the senators can kind of do what they want and apply their own standard.”

Abrams compared Trump’s first impeachment to his second, pointing out that Republicans have gone from arguing that Trump’s actions were not impeachable, to now insisting the proceeding itself is unconstitutional.

“I think it was very effective for the House managers to keep coming back to Mike Pence and the law enforcement argument,” Abrams continued. “Which is they’re trying to appeal to the Republicans. They’re saying, ‘Your guy, your vice president, was almost killed here because of what happened. And you say you’re pro-law enforcement? Look what was happening to those law enforcement officers.’ I think that’s the best argument they can make in trying to convince any reluctant Republican senators, even though it remains a long shot.”

Stephanopoulos then referenced a comment by House Impeachment Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), noting that although the Senate determined that Trump’s second impeachment trial was constitutional, senators could still vote not to convict based on their view that it is not.

“I think it’s a very smart argument for the House Managers to make, which is to say, look at it the way you would in a trial, you make the arguments to the judge to try and dismiss the case, once the judge says it’s moving forward, as the Senate did here — now you look at the facts,” Abrams replied. “But that doesn’t mean that the Senators are going to have to be bound by that.”

Watch above, via ABC News.