Impeachment: Trump team opens defence in Senate

Donald Trump’s lawyers have accused Democrats of trying to overthrow the valid results of the 2016 election.

President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump’s lawyers have accused Democrats of trying to overthrow the valid results of the 2016 election in a fiery opening to their defence against the president’s impeachment.

White House lawyers told the Senate trial that the impeachment case was also a politically partisan attempt to interfere in the forthcoming election and was based on unproven assumptions that fell far short of impeachable offences.

Mr Trump’s lawyers made their comments in two hour session Sunday (AEDT) following the conclusion of three days of Democrats outlining their case against the president.

“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told the Senate. “And we can’t allow that to happen.”

“It would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you and have placed in them. The American people decide elections. They have one coming up in nine months.

“They’re asking you to tear up all the ballots across this country on their own initiative,” he said.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate.

The president’s defence team said the impeachment was part of a broader pattern of attempts by Democrats to remove him from office without an election, including the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and now the Ukraine controversy.

The lawyers portrayed the Democrat’s case as a series of mistaken assumptions rather than hard facts about claims that the president withheld US aid to Ukraine to pressure that country to investigate a political opponent Joe Biden.

“This entire impeachment process is about the house managers’ insistence that they are able to read everybody’s thoughts,” lawyer Jay Sekulow said. “They can read everybody’s intention. Even when the principal speakers, the witnesses themselves, insist that those interpretations are wrong.’

The president’s team argued that there was no evidence that Mr Trump made the US aid contingent on Ukraine announcing an investigation into the Bidens.

Mr Cipollone told Senators “we don’t believe that they (Democrats) have come anywhere close to meeting their burden for what they’re asking you to do.’

“They’re asking you to do something very, very consequential. And I would submit to you to use a word that Mr Schiff used a lot, very, very dangerous,” he said.

House impeachment leader Adam Schiff said; “After listening to the President’s lawyers opening arguments, I have three observations. They don’t contest the facts of Trump’s scheme. They’re trying to deflect, distract from, and distort the truth. And they are continuing to cover it up by blocking documents and witnesses.”

Democrats ended their three day case against Mr Trump by warning that he would continue to abuse his power and threaten America’s democracy if he was allowed to remain in office.

Mr Schiff implored Senators to vote for new witnesses and documents to ensure that Mr Trump was given a fair trial rather than one that many would see as an attempted cover-up of the president’s actions.

“Give America a fair trial,” Schiff said. “She’s worth it.”

Mr Trump began the day by urging Americans to watch his case against “against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi” and others of “the Radical Left.”‘

After his lawyer’s presentation the president tweeted that any “fair minded’’ person watching “would be able to see how unfairly I have been treated and that this is indeed the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax that EVERYBODY, including the Democrats, truly know it is.’’

“This should never be allowed to happen again.’’

Any fair minded person watching the Senate trial today would be able to see how unfairly I have been treated and that this is indeed the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax that EVERYBODY, including the Democrats, truly knows it is. This should never be allowed to happen again!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2020

Despite the Democrats having presented their case in exhaustive detail, there was no sign that they have succeeded in winning the support of any Republicans.

Democrats need four Republicans to vote with them later this week on whether to allow new witnesses - such as acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton - to testify.

If the vote for new witnesses is defeated, it is likely that the trial could end by the end of this week with the president easily acquitted largely along party lines in the 53-47 Republican-controlled Senate.

(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)