Donald Trump fires back at ‘dangerous’ impeachment case
Donald Trump’s legal team has called the impeachment case frivolous and dangerous while offering for the first time a detailed legal defence.
US President Donald Trump’s legal team urged the Senate to swiftly reject the House of Representatives’ two articles of impeachment against him, calling the case frivolous and dangerous while offering for the first time a detailed legal defence for why he shouldn’t be removed from office.
Mr Trump’s team submitted a 171-page legal filing with the Senate on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), a day before the third presidential impeachment trial in US history kicks off in earnest and hours before the President departed Washington for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The White House document says the impeachment articles approved last month by the Democratic-controlled house included no violation of law and that Mr Trump was operating in the national interest in his dealings with Ukraine that are central to the impeachment articles.
“The articles themselves — and the rigged process that brought them here — are a brazenly political act by house Democrats that must be rejected,” Mr Trump’s lawyers, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, wrote in the filings, which include a 110-page brief and 61 pages of back-up materials.
“They debase the grave power of impeachment and disdain the solemn responsibility that power entails.”
House Democrats said in their own 111-page weekend filing that a criminal violation wasn’t a constitutional standard for impeachment and alleged Mr Trump effectively violated his oath of office by withholding about $US391m in aid for Ukraine last July while pressuring the country’s president to open investigations that would benefit him in this year’s election.
“That President Trump believes otherwise, and insists he is free to engage in such conduct again, only highlights the continuing threat he poses to the nation if allowed to remain in office,” the house impeachment managers, a group of seven Democratic representatives appointed by house Speaker Nancy Pelosi, wrote in their brief.
The Senate trial officially opened last Thursday, with the swearing in of senators by Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the proceedings.
Tuesday will see a debate over the trial’s rules, which is expected to consume the day.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Monday proposed a condensed, two-day calendar for each side to give opening arguments in the impeachment trial, ground rules that are raising objections from Democrats on the eve of the landmark proceedings.
The Republican leader outlined the process in a four-page resolution that will be voted on as one of the first orders of business when senators convene.
It also pushes off any votes on witnesses until later in the process, rather than up front, as Democrats demanded.
After the four days of opening arguments — two days per side — senators will be allowed up to 16 hours for questions to the prosecution and defence, followed by four hours of debate.
Only then will there be votes on calling other witnesses.
Some Republican senators have said they may be open to calling new witnesses after they hear the opening arguments.
Mr Trump’s team aims to block any attempt from house managers to include in the Senate trial any new witnesses or evidence that hadn’t been considered during the house impeachment process, including testimony from Lev Parnas, according to people working with the Trump team.
Mr Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personal lawyer who was working on his behalf in Ukraine, offered new allegations last week that have inflamed the debate about whether senators should call witnesses.
Mr Parnas, charged with illegally funnelling foreign money into US political campaigns, has asked Attorney-General William Barr to recuse himself in the case and appoint a special prosecutor.
Mr Trump has said he would probably try to block attempts to call John Bolton, his former national security adviser who was familiar with the dealings with Ukraine. On Twitter on Monday, Mr Trump again objected to attempts by Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer to do so.
The Wall Street Journal, AP
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