Donald Trump must be convicted because he is “personally responsible” for the riot at the US Capitol, House Democrats have said.

They detail the former president’s “incitement of insurrection against the republic he swore to protect” in a pre-trial.

It calls for him to be disqualified from ever running for office again.

Mr Trump’s legal team argues that the impeachment article is in “violation” of the US Constitution.

The storming of the Capitol occurred while Congress was meeting inside to certify the election victory of President Joe Biden.

The riot led to the deaths of five people, including a Capitol Police officer. This is Trump’s second impeachment trial, and he is the first US president in history to be impeached twice.

House impeachment managers said the former president’s repeated refusal to concede the election to Mr Biden encouraged the riot.

Before the armed insurrection, thousands of Trump supporters gathered at a “Save America” rally near the White House and listened to Mr Trump, who urged them to “fight like hell” because “we won [the election] by a landslide”.

Mr Trump’s “statements turned his ‘wild’ rally on 6 January into a powder keg waiting to blow”, the 80-page legal brief says.

Impeachment managers plan to use Mr Trump’s own words and video footage of the riot to say that “the furious crowd” was “primed (and prepared) for violence if he lit a spark”.

“The evidence is clear. When other attempts to overturn the presidential election failed, former President Trump incited an attack on the Capitol,” it reads.

They argue that, although Mr Trump is no longer in office, the Senate has to act because “a president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last”.

“This is not a routine corruption charge,” they wrote. “Trump has committed an impeachable offense of historic proportions.”

Unlike in the case of Mr Trump’s first impeachment last year, Democrats have not indicated that they will call any witnesses.