Trump lawyer accuses House managers of manipulating evidence by pointing to doctored tweets that weren't used in the impeachment trial

• Trump lawyer David Schoen accused House managers of manipulating evidence in the impeachment trial.
• Schoen said Friday that the managers "created false representation of tweets."
• However, the doctored tweets were never presented in the trial.

Donald Trump's lawyer David Schoen claimed on Friday that House impeachment managers may have manipulated parts of their presentation against the former president this week, yet the evidence he pointed to was never used in their case.

"There is significant reason to doubt the evidence the House managers have put before us," Schoen said during his defense of Trump in his second impeachment trial. "Let me say this clearly. We have reason to believe the House managers manipulated evidence and selectively edited footage. If they did, and this were a court of law, they would face sanctions from the judge."

Schoen specifically accused the Democratic managers of having "created false representation of tweets."

In his presentation, he displayed a photo in a New York Times article of lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin looking at two tweets dated January 3, 2020 on a computer screen. One was a Trump retweet of a supporter writing that she will "PROUDLY stand beside" him on January 6. Another was a follow-up tweet from the same supporter, exclaiming: "We are bringing the Calvary Mr President."

But the House impeachment managers never presented the doctored tweets at the trial, which Schoen himself noted. Instead, they presented a screenshot of Trump's retweet, correctly dated January 3, 2021, which has since been taken down as his account is permanently suspended. They also showed the follow-up tweet with the same date.

"To be fair, the House managers caught this error before showing it on the Senate floor, so you never saw it when it was presented to you," Schoen said Friday.

Trump's defense lawyers are presenting their case on Friday that this impeachment trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer president, and that his speech shortly before the January 6 riot is protected under the First Amendment. Their arguments come after House impeachment managers have directly blamed Trump for his role in the riot and accused him of "incitement of insurrection."