US Law Professor Calls Donald Trump's Lawyer Misleading

Donald Trump. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - The Law Professor of Michigan State University, Brian Kalt, who is also a leading impeachment expert, said former President Donald Trump's lawyer had misinterpreted his research in an argument document that will be used at the United States Senate impeachment hearing starting this Tuesday.

Professor Kalt in an email to Reuters said his research on impeachment was not accurately described in the 78-page argument document prepared by Donald Trump's defense team.

"They are dishonest and misleading like this. In some parts (of the document), they misrepresent what I wrote very badly," Kalt said on Twitter.

Kalt's name was mentioned 15 times in Trump's pretrial, although Kalt last month signed an open letter from 150 legal experts explaining why the impeachment process against Trump is supported by the US Constitution.

Kalt said he was very surprised to see the legal review article he wrote, cited in support of claims by Trump's lawyers, "when a president is no longer in office, the goal of impeachment ceases."

Kalt explained in his e-mail that this was wrong and his article, which was quoted by Trump's team of lawyers, actually said otherwise.

Kalt is not the only prominent lawyer to argue that the Senate trial is constitutional. They also include Washington attorney Charles Cooper, an influential conservative, who made the argument in a weekend opinion article for the Wall Street Journal

Previously, in the pretrial summary of Donald Trump's adviser, Bruce Castor Jr. and his colleague David Schoen deny Trump has encouraged violence, attacked Democrats, and once again challenged the constitutionality of the impeachment process.

This week, the US Senate will begin trying the impeachment of Donald Trump on charges of inciting the uprising that sparked riots on Capitol Hill on January 6. The trial will begin on Tuesday, February 9 local time.