To the Editor:

Re “G.O.P. Blocks Bids to Add Evidence at Start of Trial” (front page, Jan. 22):

Until today, I have always been proud to say I am an attorney. I’ve heard all the lawyer jokes about sleazy lawyers who will say and do anything, tell lies with impunity, to help their clients win. But I always laughed them away with the belief that they depicted a sad but small minority.

Now I am no longer laughing because it is no joke. President Trump’s lawyers blatantly lied in their legal brief. They have argued that impeachment based on abuse of power is a “radical” concept and that the framers did not want Congress to judge whether presidents abused their discretion. When a majority of constitutional scholars agree that impeachment is the very tool available to Congress to stop a president’s abuse of power, saying that theory is radical and unfounded is a baldfaced lie.

Lawyers may make arguments to a court based on differing analyses of the facts. But they cannot misrepresent the facts. Today I am ashamed to be part of a profession that includes the lawyers representing Mr. Trump.

Rosie Rees

Evanston, Ill.

To the Editor:

Forty-five years ago I fled Communism. On Tuesday night I watched the first day of the Senate impeachment trial, which, I felt, was not unlike a dissident’s court case in Vietnam — it is likely that no witnesses will be called or documents allowed to be presented, only state-generated photos and video clips are provided, and a ready-made ruling is seemingly in store. The only difference is that the defendant in the Senate case — the president of the United States — will most likely be acquitted.