Trump’s former security advisor’s new book contradicts President’s account of Ukraine events
Allegations in a bombshell new book by one of US President Donald Trump’s former closest advisors could dramatically alter the outcome of his impeachment trial.
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Allegations in a bombshell new book by one of US President Donald Trump’s former closest advisors could dramatically shift the shape and scope of his impeachment.
As Mr Trump’s lawyers began their second day of opening statements in his Senate trial, the White House was reeling from extracts of an upcoming book by former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
In the book, Mr Bolton claims Mr Trump told him he would withhold military aide to war-torn Ukraine until it agreed to his demand that the country investigate his political rival, Joe Biden.
This allegation is the basis of the first article of impeachment against Mr Trump and has been vehemently denied by his legal team and the President.
The timing of the leaked extracts of the book - which is currently undergoing a legislated White House approval process - could lengthen Mr Trump’s trial for months.
A vote this week on whether witnesses or evidence will be allowed in the Senate trial could now swing against Mr Trump, with four moderate Republicans indicating they would consider siding with Democrats to vote for an expanded remit in the impeachment trial.
“John Bolton’s relevance to our decision has become increasingly clear,” said Republican Senator Mitt Romney.
Another moderate Republican, Senator Susan Collins from Democrat-leaning Maine, said she has always wanted “the opportunity for witnesses” and the existence of Mr Bolton’s book “strengthens the case.”
“The reports about John Bolton’s book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues,” Ms Collins said.
While Mr Trump’s removal from office remains extremely unlikely, given a two-thirds majority guilty vote would be required in the Republican-held Senate, the introduction of witness testimony and anticipated legal challenges to stop some of them appearing could see it stretch on for months, possibly even until the November election.
At the Senate podium for day-two of opening arguments for the defence, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow said his rebuttal would not take in outside matters, and that it would rely on “transcript evidence” and “publicly available information”.
“We do not deal with speculation, allegations, that are not based on evidentiary standards at all,” Mr Sekulow said, in an apparent reference to Mr Bolton’s book, which is dominating the news agenda here.
He said the defence would continue to argue that Mr Trump had behaved within the scope of his presidential oath in his dealings with newly installed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenksy.
“The President in his conversation was clear on a number of points, but so was President Zelensky,” Mr Sekulow said.
“It was President Zelensky that said (there was) no pressure, I didn’t feel any pressure’, and again there’s this kind of reading of minds of what people were saying. I think we need to look at what they actually said.
“The President was at all times acting under his constitutional authority, under his legal authority, international interest and pursuant to his oath of office.
“Asking a foreign leader to get to the bottom of issues of corruption is not a violation of oath.”
Mr Trump reacted to the extracts from Mr Bolton’s book with a flurry of tweets.
“I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens,” he said.
“If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.”
The introduction of witnesses could also see Republicans push for an appearance from Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, for questions about his role on the board of a Ukraine energy company.
Monday’s statements were expected to last more than six hours, and came after a brief opening on Saturday, which Mr Trump’s supporters claimed “shredded” three days of his opposer’s arguments “in just two hours”.
The White House lawyers spent Saturday charging that the Democratic prosecutors were undertaking politically motivated attempt to oust Mr Trump.
DEMOCRATS ‘HID EVIDENCE’
White House counsel Pat Cipollone said Democratic prosecutors had hidden evidence during 22-hours of opening statements over the first three days of the trial.
“We are going to confront them on the merits of their argument,” Mr Cipollone said. “They have the burden of proof and they have not come close to meeting it.”
“We intend to show you some of the evidence that they decided not to show you, and every time you see one of these pieces of evidence, ask yourself: why didn’t I see that in the last three days?
“Why didn’t they (Democrats) show that to the Senate?”
The defence rebuttal also focussed on a July 2019 phone call central to the case, in which Democrats accuse Mr Trump of threatening to withhold military aid unless Ukraine probed his political rival.
Prosecutors argue this conversation shows Mr Trump used his position to push for foreign interference in the 2020 election, the basis of the the abuse of power charge he faces.
The second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress, alleges Mr Trump tried to stymie investigations into his interactions with newly installed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Mr Trump’s defence told the Senate trial on Saturday, local time, that Ukraine was not aware the aid was being withheld and that it had been paid.
“We know there was no quid pro quo on the call, we know that from the transcript (of the July call),” Deputy White House counsel Michael Purpura said.
“There couldn’t possibly have been a quid pro quo because the Ukrainians didn’t know the security assistance was on hold.
“There can’t be a threat without the person knowing he’s being threatened.”
Mr Purpura argued there was no evidence Mr Trump made the aid contingent on an investigation into leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son’s role on the board of a Ukraine energy company.
He said Mr Trump’s request for Mr Zelensky to “do us a favour” in mounting the investigation into the Bidens was clearly in line with his concerns about cleaning up corruption in Ukraine, and that “us” referred to the US and not the President.
Republicans have repeatedly decried impeachment as an attempt to overthrow the results of the 2016 election, citing Democrats who had called for Mr Trump’s removal through the process from his earliest days in office.
“They’re asking you not only to overturn the results of the last election, but as I’ve said before, they’re asking you to remove President Trump from an election that’s occurring in approximately nine months,” Mr Cipollone said in his opening argument. “They’re asking you to tear up all of the ballots all across the country on your own initiative, take that decision away from the American people.
“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history, and we can’t allow that to happen.”
Mr Trump’s team presented a truncated first day of rebuttal, speaking for just two hours before adjourning until Monday.
The President had earlier bemoaned the fact that the trial schedule meant his team had to present its case on a Saturday - or “Death Valley for TV” - curtailing his audience and opportunity to defend himself to the American people.
Mr Trump urged his social media followers to tune in shortly before his lawyers took the Senate podium.
“Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M.!”, he said on Twitter.
Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty†Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M. on @FoxNews, @OANN or Fake News @CNN or Fake News MSDNC!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2020
Impeachment has further split a nation already divided by the upcoming election which will decide if Mr Trump wins a second term.
It comes less than two weeks before Democrats cast their first influential primary votes on who will lead them in November polls, with four candidates forced to suspend their Iowa campaigning for the duration of the trial while they sit as jurors.
The trial will run six days a week, for up to 12 hours a day from 1pm.
Mr Trump is only the third president to face an impeachment trial.
Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson were also impeached, but both were acquitted in their Senate trials.
Such an outcome is almost inevitable for Mr Trump, with at least 20 Republicans needed to cross the Senate floor to convict the president and remove him through a majority guilty verdict.
