US President Donald Trump’s legal team on Saturday issued a fiery response ahead of opening arguments in his impeachment trial, while Democrats in the US House of Representatives laid out their case in forceful fashion, saying that the president betrayed public trust with behavior that was the “worst nightmare” of the founding fathers.
The dueling filings previewed arguments both sides intend to make once Trump’s impeachment trial begins in earnest tomorrow in the US Senate.
Their challenge will be to make a case that appeals to the 100 senators who are to render the verdict and for a public bracing for a presidential election in 10 months.
“President Donald J. Trump used his official powers to pressure a foreign government to interfere in a United States election for his personal political gain, and then attempted to cover up his scheme by obstructing [the US] Congress’s investigation into his misconduct,” House prosecutors wrote.
Trump’s legal team, responding to the US Senate’s official summons for the trial, said that the president “categorically and unequivocally” denies the charges of abuse and obstruction against him.
“This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away,” the president’s filing states.
Stripped of legalese and structured in plain English, the documents underscored the extent to which the impeachment proceedings are a political rather than conventional legal process.
They are the first of several filings expected in coming days as senators prepare to take their seats for the rare impeachment court.
Senators swore an oath to do “impartial justice” as the chamber convenes to consider the two articles of impeachment approved by the House last month as Trump’s presidency and legacy hangs in the balance.
One Republican whose votes are closely watched, US Senator Lisa Murkowski, acknowledged the political pressure bearing on them.
“I’m going to take my constitutional obligations very, very seriously,” she told reporters by telephone.
The House’s 111-page brief outlined the prosecutors’ narrative, starting from Trump’s phone call with Ukraine and relying on the private and public testimony of a dozen witnesses — ambassadors and national security officials at high levels of government — who raised concerns about the president’s actions.
“The only remaining question is whether the members of the Senate will accept and carry out the responsibility placed on them by the Framers of our Constitution and their constitutional Oaths,” the House managers wrote.
The Trump team called the two articles of impeachment “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president.”
Trump’s team encouraged lawmakers to reject “poisonous partisanship” and “vindicate the will of the American people” by rejecting both articles of impeachment approved by the House.
The Senate is still debating the ground rules of the trial, particularly the question of whether there will be new witnesses as fresh evidence emerges over Trump’s Ukraine actions that led to impeachment.
New information from Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, is being incorporated in the House case.
At the same time, Senate Democrats want to call former US national security adviser John Bolton, among other potential eyewitnesses, after the White House blocked officials from appearing in the House.
With Republicans controlling the Senate 53-47, they can set the trial’s rules — or any four Republicans could join with Democrats to change its course.
Murkowski told reporters she wants to hear both sides of the case before deciding whether to call for new witnesses and testimony.
“I don’t know what more we need until I’ve been given the base case,” Murkowski said.
The House’s impeachment managers are working through the weekend and were scheduled to be at the Capitol by midday yesterday to prep the case.
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