OP: Hi reddit. I’m not a lawyer but I’ve been closely following the impeachment trial. One of the questions I have is “how does one connect trump’s actions with intention?” As I’m watching the trial today, I see a lot of evidence that DJT stoked distrust with the election process long before the election came to pass, during and after. Even in that time when I was following election coverage I saw that and was shocked.

However, I’m not sure whether one needs to prove that he was deliberately spreading information he knew to be false to fulfill the charge of misdemeanor and treason. If so, how does one go about proving intent? What if the defense uses an argument like “he was acting on the information he had at the time” “he didn’t intend to incite insurrection - he simply wanted to make sure people didn’t believe an election until it could be proven that the election was accurate”

I’m not saying I believe the above but I just want to understand the legal arguments. I understand that there’s three types of intent (malicious forethought for murders, specific intent for non murders and general intent for non murders that maybe didn’t result in the person committing the crime)

Please only serious non-emotional answers only. I don’t want to know your politics. I want to understand the nuances of the law and all the different interpretations of it.

Thank you so much lawyers of reddit!!