The answer is typo. It’s in the very first line of Team Trump’s legal submission to the “Unites States Senate.” Anyone with an ounce of sense knows that running a spellcheck is not enough. The proof is always in the proofreading, which is something none of Trump’s lawyers seems to get. This isn’t the first typo in a document submitted by a Trump shyster, and it won’t be the last. One word they know how to spell is, L-I-E.

The content of the pleading is almost as ridiculous as the typo. It advances three claims each more specious than the next.

First, a former president cannot be impeached. The problem with this argument is that he was IMPEACHED while in office. The timing of the senate trial was solely at the discretion of the former majority leader. To allow this argument to prevail is to invite future presidents to flout the law in their final days in office. It was bad enough that a drunken Tricky Dick spoke to portraits of dead presidents in the waning days of his administration.

Speaking of Dead Presidents:

Unlike them dead presidents in the song, Trump’s mug will never appear on coins or currency. Make that real money, there’s bound to be some counterfeit MAGA bucks floating around the internet already.

Second, Pennywise did not lie or do anything wrong whatsoever on Twelfth Night 2021. This is, of course, laughable on its face. He told and retold the BIG LIE that there was election fraud and that he won in a landslide. There’s mountains of evidence to disprove this point as well as a Stevie Nicks song to refute these claims:

Yeah, I know it refutes nothing but it’s a helluva song. Beats the hell outta YMCA.

Third, FREEDOM, MAN. The Impeached Insult Comedian’s shysters argue that his Twelfth Night rant is protected by the First Amendment. FREEDOM, MAN.

There is, of course, an exception to this rule: incitement speech. Here’s how the Supremes dealt with it in the landmark case of Brandenburg v. Ohio:

“The constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”

I seem to recall a certain orator urging his followers to march on the Capitol after whipping them into a frenzy. And he claimed that he’d walk with them. Another lie that the MAGA maggots should regard as a betrayal, but gullibility is par for the course in the Trump cult. They’ve given Pennywise a mulligan on everything else…

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if this were a legal, not a political proceeding, Trump would be convicted on this evidence. Instead, 45 senators are on the record as thinking that Trump’s behavior was acceptable. He’s never taken responsibility for anything in his life, why start now?

The upcoming trial may seem like an exercise in futility, but it makes an important point: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. It’s a point lost on some contemporary observers, but history is a sterner taskmaster. Of course, the essence of Trumpism is short-term thinking and amnesia. Their Dear Leader lies so often that he doesn’t bother to keep track of the lies. That’s up to the WaPo and Daniel Dale.

Finally, I’ve come up with a new Fog of History photo meme thing for Trump’s second senate trial. It didn’t seem fair to lump Bill Clinton in with the two worst presidents in history since his offense was lying about a blow job as opposed to blowing up the country.