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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of