See all the evidence presented in Trump’s impeachment trial

Updated Feb. 13 at 3:03 p.m.

During the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, Democrats tried to build a case against the former president by using hours of video and audio evidence, hundreds of pages of documents and screenshots of the president’s social media postings, both before and on the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Trump, the first president to be tried in the Senate after leaving office, faces one charge of incitement of insurrection tied to the attack.

[What Trump said before his supporters stormed the Capitol, annotated]

Over two days of presentations, the House impeachment managers directly linked Trump’s history of incendiary rhetoric and his months-long campaign to undermine the November 2020 election with the statements of rioters who stormed the Capitol. A vote to acquit Trump, they argued, would leave the door open to a future run for office by the former president — and put the country at risk of further attacks by domestic violent extremists.

Trump’s legal team moved faster, presenting for just over three hours. They argued the impeachment is a political stunt by Democrats afraid to run against Trump in another election; that false claims Trump made about the election being stolen are protected as free speech; and that the impeachment managers were unable to prove Trump directly incited the Capitol rioters. The Fact Checker found several misleading claims within the Trump team’s arguments.

Below is a day-by-day look at the evidence presented at trial.

Warning: Some exhibits contain strong language and violence.

Evidence presented on February 13

Watch the full Feb. 13 livestream

The House impeachment managers closed their case with remarks by Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.), Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) and Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.). Cicilline and Dean showed presentations.

Dean’s presentation aimed to rebut the Trump legal team’s claims, in particular that the House managers’ case was focused solely on Trump’s Jan. 6 speech. Dean withdrew some slides from her presentation after Republican objections that she was violating rules against introducing new evidence during closing arguments.

Cicilline focused on Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, showing slides that gave a detailed timeline of events that day.

The trial steered into unexpected territory on its last day when senators voted to call witnesses. After a brief recess, a deal was reached to enter a statement from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R.-Wash.) about her conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) about the events of Jan. 6, in lieu of calling a full slate of witnesses.

Evidence presented on February 12

Watch the full Feb. 12 livestream

Hour 4: Watch video evidence Trump’s team presented in in their fourth hour of defense

Evidence shown in the fourth hour

Lead Trump lawyer Bruce Castor, the former deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania, used the first clip in this video as part of a broader argument that Trump did not incite the Capitol riot, saying instead that the riot was “premeditated” by bad actors. The video quotes media reports saying the attack was planned and strategized. Castor did not acknowledge an earlier Trump tweet in which Trump said: “Be there, will be wild.”

“So to answer the question of the House manager, ‘Does anybody believe this would have occurred but for the speech from Donald Trump?’” Castor said. “I do.”

The second clip shows Democrats repeatedly saying that one of the purposes of the impeachment is to make sure Trump can’t be elected again. It’s part of the Trump legal team’s broader argument that the entire impeachment process is a calculated political move to get a rival out of the way, rather than being a legitimate constitutional imperative. The clip includes several of the House impeachment managers, Democratic members of Congress and a couple of strategists and members of the media. Like the first clip, it’s set to dramatic music, with thumping drums adding an urgency that builds to a crescendo at the end of the video.

Hour 3: Watch video evidence Trump’s team presented in in their third hour of defense

Evidence shown in the third hour

Castor replayed a video first shown by Trump lawyer Michael T. van der Veen, part of a deliberate strategy of repetition on the part of Trump’s legal team.

Trump’s team used video to argue impeachment managers played clips from Trump’s Jan. 6 speech out of context. The video shows the clips as presented by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), then lets the clip continue in an attempt to show the impeachment managers left out important context, in this case about which “people” Trump wanted to “fight.” Trump’s lawyers say Neguse unfairly inferred Trump was asking his supporters to “fight,” while the extended clip shows Trump saying Republicans should “primary the hell out of the ones that don’t fight.”

Evidence shown by Bruce L. Castor Jr. (Trump Attorney)

Hour 2: Watch video evidence Trump’s team presented in in their third hour of defense

Evidence shown in the second hour

Van der Veen argued that Trump’s false claims about the election and statements that his supporters should “fight” are protected free speech. He used a video to argue “both sides of the aisle” use inflammatory language, equating various clips of Democrats with Trump’s language. The video also shows several celebrities, including Johnny Depp and Madonna. Van der Veen insisted, “this is not ‘what-about-ism” and that “all political speech must be protected.” However, it was ultimately a side-by-side comparison of Trump and Democrats.

Van der Veen also pointed to clips from Trump’s Jan. 6 speech which he said highlight Trump specifically asking for protesters to make their voices heard “peacefully.”

“The House managers have played manipulated, selectively edited parts of Mr. Trump’s speech,” he argued. “They focus on the word ‘fight.’”

And in another direct comparison with Democrats, van der Veen showed a reel of Democrats using the word “fight” in various contexts, arguing that simply using that word isn’t inciting violence.

Hour 1: Watch video evidence Trump’s team presented in in their first hour of defense

Evidence shown in the first hour

Van der Veen began with an argument that some Democrats, including the lead House impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), objected to the certification of 2016 electoral college results. In comparing those objections made on the House floor to Trump’s false claims of electoral fraud, van der Veen said “litigating questions of electoral integrity is not incitement to insurrection.”

Van der Veen argued Trump has consistently been an opponent of political violence and that Trump “adamantly” denounces the Capitol rioters. The video flips between Trump proclaiming himself a champion of law and order and a friend to law enforcement compared with short clips of Democrats variously sympathizing with Black Lives Matter protesters, the protests after the death of George Floyd last summer and then later talking about “punching” Trump. The clips used in this video would be played repeatedly over the course of the day.

Another Trump lawyer, David Schoen, showed a reel of House impeachment managers citing media reports as evidence, accusing them of relying on media reports that “wouldn’t meet the evidentiary standards of any court.”

“’Reportedly’ is a euphemism for, ‘I have no real evidence,’” Schoen argued.

In another series of videos, Schoen showed Democrats calling for Trump’s impeachment at various times in his presidency.

“Let’s face it, for House Democrats, President Trump is the best enemy to attack,” he said before showing a long video of various Democrats opposing Trump.

Evidence shown by Michael van der Veen (Trump Attorney)
Evidence shown by David Schoen (Trump Attorney)

Evidence presented on February 11

Watch the full Feb. 11 livestream

Evidence shown by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.)

Neguse began the House managers’ attempt to preemptively dismantle the Trump defense, beginning with the notion that the former president’s Jan. 6 rally speech was protected by the First Amendment.He noted that several legal experts have called the First Amendment defense “legally frivolous,” and he said it’s a distraction to avoid discussing the facts of the case.

Neguse also detailed Trump’s efforts to pressure members of Congress, state election officials and his own vice president to overturn Joe Biden’s win. He examined Trump’s tweets on the day of the insurrection, noting that Trump never condemned the attack, never condemned the attackers and never said he was sending help.

Trump, Neguse said, created a “powder keg” with his false claims of a stolen election — and then, on Jan. 6, “he struck a match, and he aimed it straight at this building.”

Evidence shown by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.)

Castro argued the attack on the Capitol damaged the image of U.S. democracy across the globe. He cited a Jan. 13 joint intelligence bulletin noting that in the wake of the riot, “Russian, Iranian and Chinese influence actors have seized the opportunity to amplify narratives in furtherance of their policy interest amid the presidential transition.” Castro also noted that “even our allies are speaking up” and quoted Canadian and German officials denouncing the attack and calling for accountability.

Evidence shown by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.)

Cicilline detailed the physical and emotional toll the attack took on members of Congress and others in the Capitol complex, including police officers who were injured or who died. His presentation included clips of interviews with a variety of people who worked in the building that day, including congressional staff, cleaning staff, food service workers and journalists. Cicilline also noted that the attack occurred in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and that social distancing was impossible.

Evidence shown by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.)

DeGette detailed how Trump’s actions throughout his presidency emboldened members of domestic violent extremist groups — and warned that the country remains under threat. She cited a joint intelligence bulletin issued Jan. 13 stating that after the attack on the Capitol, the country’s top defense and law enforcement agencies “reported an increase in credible threats to the inauguration from Donald Trump’s supporters.”

DeGette pointed to Trump’s retweeting of Otero County, N.M., Commissioner Couy Griffin, who said in a video last year, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” At the time, Trump promoted the video, adding, “Thank you Cowboys. See you in New Mexico!” Griffin was arrested last month and charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds. He pledged to return to D.C. with guns for Biden’s inauguration, and he alluded to the prospect of violence and another incursion into the offices of lawmakers.

DeGette also cited a Washington Post report on the cost to taxpayers of Trump’s onslaught of falsehoods about the November election.

Evidence shown by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)

Lieu played recordings and displayed quotes from Republican state officials and former Trump administration officials condemning and blaming Trump for riling up the rioters on Jan. 6. Among the voices were Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and his former labor secretary, Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Lieu showed photos of the more than a dozen Trump officials who resigned in protest on or shortly after Jan. 6.

Senators were also reminded that it took Trump nearly 30 hours after the attack began to denounce the violence, and of the delayed deployment of the National Guard to the Capitol.

Evidence shown by Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.)

Raskin showed clips of early Trump rallies at which the then-presidential candidate encouraged his supporters to rough up protesters. At one of the rallies, Trump offered to pay the resulting legal fees.

Raskin walked senators through other episodes, including Trump’s praise of Republican Greg Gianforte — at the time a Montana congressman, now the state’s governor — after he body-slammed a reporter in 2017. Raskin also alleged that Trump inflamed conspirators who hatched a failed scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) last year, highlighting tweets in which Trump repeatedly took aim at Whitmer and told his supporters to “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”

Evidence shown by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.)

DeGette presented a compilation of videos and social media posts illustrating how the insurrectionists responded to Trump’s Jan. 6 speech and echoed his message as they violently attacked the Capitol, chanting “Fight for Trump!” and “Stop the Steal!” She also displayed court records and media reports in which the insurrectionists said they were taking orders from Trump, their commander in chief.

Evidence presented on February 10

Watch the full Feb. 10 livestream

Previously unseen footage from Jan. 6

The House managers unveiled several clips of silent footage caught by the Capitol security cameras as rioters moved about the Capitol, alongside previously unaired audio of the D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department’s efforts to respond to the riot as it quickly spiraled out of control. New body-camera footage from an officer who was beat up by the rioting crowds proved to be a particularly compelling bit of evidence for senators, who were visibly affected by those images. The following video is a compilation of the security camera footage — almost 10 minutes’ worth — that House managers presented publicly for the first time in the Senate on Wednesday afternoon.

Evidence shown by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.)

Castro focused on showing video evidence of the animus Trump directed specifically toward Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Vice President Pence, as rioters chanted “hang Mike Pence,” built a model gallows outside the Capitol and hunted for the vice president, who was huddled with his family inside the building. Castro also attempted to illustrate how closely the rioters were listening to Trump by making that case in their own words. He featured a video shot by those storming the Capitol in which a man yells down Capitol Police officers by saying: “We are listening to Trump, your boss” — and another clip in which a fur-clad man (Jacob Chansley, who billed himself a “QAnon shaman”) comments that when Trump told his supporters via video message to go home just moments before, it was because “we won the f---ing day.”

Evidence shown by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.)

Cicilline went through a careful timeline of Trump’s conversations on the afternoon of Jan. 6, using news clippings to point out how the people around the former president — including his advisors, daughters and allies on the Hill — pleaded with him to intervene and call his supporters away from the Capitol. Cicilline also played the audio of a voice message Giuliani mistakenly left for Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on the phone of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) referencing the ongoing electoral count and asking him to “slow it down.”

Evidence shown by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)

Swalwell continued featuring the D.C. police audio and the Capitol security footage to show how security officials scrambled to mount a response to the incursion while rioters continued to move through the Capitol. The images showed lawmakers being evacuated down certain hallways as rioters moved down others. At one point, Swalwell showed body-camera footage from an officer as rioters beat him up.

Evidence shown by Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands)

Plaskett unveiled never-before-seen footage from Capitol security cameras and audio from D.C. Police in a presentation designed to show just how rioters breached the Capitol and came close to intercepting the senators themselves. To do this, she juxtaposed simultaneous videos of what was going on inside and outside the Capitol and used a graphic displaying the Capitol floor plan and moving dots representing the rioters, Capitol Police and the lawmakers who were being evacuated, as the new security footage played silently.

Evidence shown by Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.)

Dean brought the managers’ presentation squarely into the events of Jan. 6, highlighting Trump’s own words in the tweets he sent out that morning and playing several minutes of the speech he gave at the rally earlier that day, in which he called on his supporters to “fight like hell” and march on the Capitol. She also showed how Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, called for a “trial by combat.”

Evidence shown by Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands)

In her first turn at the podium, Plaskett presented evidence outlining how the groups behind the Jan. 6 rally and riot had been forces in the Trump operation for months. Alongside tweets and videos, she showed how Women for America First, a group that had been a force during December’s violent Million MAGA March, amended a permit application for a rally that was meant to happen after the inauguration to take place on Jan. 6, a few days after Trump told his supporters to join him in Washington, D.C. She showed web posts that indicated the focus of the demonstrators was always the Capitol and reports citing White House insiders claiming there was no way Trump and his inner circle wouldn’t have been aware of those plans. Using video, social media posts and news articles, Plaskett showed how there were weeks of warnings that Jan. 6 could turn violent, and how organizers pulled off the planned and coordinated attack that they had been threatening.

Evidence shown by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)

Lieu showed how Trump, frustrated by the courts, turned his focus to members of Congress to pressure them to reject — or at least object to — the election results by blocking the election’s certification. They showed a series of tweets in which he attacked and threatened then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), accusing him of letting Biden “steal” the election. Lieu also laid out how in the same period, Trump pressured the acting attorney general to investigate the voter fraud that had already been rejected by the courts. Finally, Lieu showed how Trump eventually turned to target Mike Pence, publicly calling on his own vice president to block the certification when he presided over the joint session on Jan. 6 — something it would have been effectively impossible for Pence, whose job was to merely preside, to do.

Evidence shown by Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.)

Dean focused on the dozens of court challenges Trump and his supporters brought against the election results in seven states and the District of Columbia — and how even when those cases were thrown out (some by Republican judges), he still refused to accept defeat. Using news articles, videos and Trump’s own tweets, they showed how a campaign was waged against the leaders who refused to disavow the election results, with Trump saving his worst vitriol for Republican leaders in places like Georgia — and how it continued, despite warnings that someone would be hurt or killed.

Evidence shown by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)

Swalwell continued where Castro left off, showing how even as states certified the results of their elections, Trump refused to accept his loss: sending tweets accusing Democrats of cheating and promising that “we will never give up!” Using slides of the president’s tweets, he showed how that drumbeat led to Trump issuing open, repeated invitations to his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 to protest the election — the same day that Congress would be certifying the election results — and how he cheered when his supporters said “the calvary [sic] is coming.” (“Calvary” is a reference to the crucifixion of Jesus. Soldiers on horseback are known as “cavalry.”) Swalwell also showed a video of the spurious charges Trump made of “dead people” voting and “midnight vote dumps,” refuting them point by point and showed how his supporters took the “stop the steal” chant into the streets in various cities across America.

Evidence shown by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.)

Castro dug into Trump’s efforts to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election, starting in the spring of 2020 — when the president began tweeting about “the greatest Rigged Election in history” — and moving step by step through the months that followed to show how Trump insisted ever more forcefully and frequently that the election results could not be trusted. Castro punctuated that with a video showing how Trump tried to discredit the legitimacy of mail-in votes as the tallies began to swing Biden’s way, and how his supporters responded by attempting to stop the counting of votes in swing states across the country.

Evidence shown by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.)

Neguse laid out the tripartite structure of the case House managers would seek to prove: provocation, attack and harm. He then dug in to convince senators that Trump had provoked the riot in the months prior by promoting three common refrains: “the big lie” that the election had been “stolen”, the “stop the steal” campaign, and exhorting his devotees to “fight like hell” for him. Using video from the rioters themselves, as well as court documents, news articles, and interviews with Trump’s former advisers, Neguse argued that Trump had methodically set the stage for the attack on the Capitol, and was fully conscious of what he was doing.

Evidence shown by Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.)

A key part of the House managers’ case was their argument that Trump not only incited the attack, he cheered it — even as the advisers around him urged him to stop the assault on the Capitol. To illustrate this, House managers featured Trump’s own words and tweets — inviting supporters to “fight” and attend his rally, encouraging them to “be strong” and even hours after the Capitol was breached, telling the insurrectionists they were “very special.” In a moment that silenced the Senate chamber, Raskin also showed a Buzzfeed article quoting a Black police officer driven to tears by the racist epithets rioters threw at him as he defended the Capitol. “What the f---, man? Is this America?” Raskin quoted the officer as saying while encouraging senators to ponder the same question.

Evidence presented on February 9

Watch the full Feb. 9 livestream

Trump legal team

The former president’s lawyers took almost an hour to get to the presentation of their evidence, which was presented to the Senate by David Schoen. Schoen selected passages of the Constitution to argue that “removal” was such an integral part of impeachment that it would be wrong to convict Trump after he’d left office. He suggested instead that if the Senate votes to bar Trump from office it would be the equivalent of a constitutionally prohibited bill of attainder against Trump, as he is now a private citizen. (Though, technically speaking, any such act by the Senate would not be a “bill.”) Schoen also highlighted statements to suggest that Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the Senate president pro tempore, was too biased to preside over the trial. Though he dismissed the House managers’ video presentation as “movies” edited to toy with the senators’ emotions, he aired a short video himself — of various Democrats, calling for impeachment since the early months of Trump’s presidency.

House impeachment managers

The House managers argued the constitutionality of their case against the president with a series of slides depicting the Framers’ theories and intent behind crafting impeachment as a remedy to remove rogue presidents from office and bar them from seeking it again. But the standout evidence was a 13-minute video featuring the events of the Jan. 6 riot, woven together with the sentiments and statements expressed by Trump during and after the insurrection. Though not specifically focused on the opening question of constitutionality, the video was a reminder of the underlying facts of the case — and a taste of the managers’ case to come.

Briefs filed in the trial:

About this story

Project contributed by Meg Kelly, Madison Walls, Nick Kirkpatrick, Karoun Demirjian, Phoebe Connelly, Lucio Villa, Felicia Sonmez, Peter Stevenson and Leo Dominguez.