Trump impeachment: President unleashes as Democrats set out case against him

Donald Trump lashes out at ‘corrupt’ Democrats as they start to lay out their case against him in the Senate.

Adam Schiff address the Senate at the start of the impeachment trial. Picture; AP.

Democrats have opened their case in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial by warning that if he is not removed from office then no future president will feel accountable to the law.

In the first of three days of opening argument from Democrats, their lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff said Mr Trump had breached the faith of the country’s founders by trying to cheat on an election and then covering up his crimes.

“We are here today in this hallowed chamber, undertaking this solemn action for only the third time in history because Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, has acted precisely as Hamilton and his contemporaries feared,” Mr Schiff said.

“President Trump solicited foreign interference in our democratic elections, abusing the power of his office to seek help from abroad to improve his re-election prospects at home. President Trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to a strategic partner at war with Russia to secure foreign help with his re-election. In other words, to cheat.

“If not remedied by his conviction in the Senate and removal from office, President Trump’s abuse of his office and obstruction of congress will permanently alter the balance of power among the branches of government, inviting future presidents to operate as if they are also beyond the reach of accountability, congressional oversight and the law,” he told the Senate.

Speaking before he left the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Trump hit out at Mr Schiff calling him a “con job” and a “corrupt politician.”

He said he would love to attend the trial so he could “sit right in the front row and stare into their corrupt faces.”

“We’re doing very well,” he said. “I got to watch enough. I thought our team did a very good job. But honestly, we have all the material. They don’t have the material.”

He said his fight with Democrats over impeachment and against anti-Trump FBI officers in the Russia probe was ‘one of the greatest things’ he had accomplished as president.

Mr Trump also claimed he would be happy for key administration witnesses to be called at the trial, contrary to the attempts of Republicans to prevent the testimony of officials such as acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.

But the president then warned that their appearance could raise questions of “national security”.

Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters at the US Capitol. Picture: AFP.

He said that Mr Bolton - who was opposed to the president’s pressure campaign against Ukraine - “knows some of my thoughts” and “knows what I think about leaders.”

“When he knows my thoughts on certain people and other governments, and we’re talking about massive trade deals and war and peace and all these different things that we talk about, that’s really a very important national security problem,” Mr Trump said.

The opening arguments in the trial got underway after an acrimonious first day where Senators fought for 12 hours over the rules of the trial.

Eventually the Republican-controlled Senate passed Majority leader Mitch McConnell’s rules for the trial but only after Democrats had attempted unsuccessfully to immediately introduce new witnesses and documents.

“It was a dark day and a dark night for the Senate,” Democrat minority leader Chuck Schumer said. “As a consequence, the impeachment trial of President Trump begins with a cloud hanging over it. A cloud of unfairness. Democrats will seek additional votes on witnesses and documents down the line.”

In his opening statement, Mr Schiff outlined over several hours the Democrat case that the president abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, including by withholding needed US military aid to that country.

“It was a smear tactic against a political opponent that President Trump apparently feared,” Mr Schiff said.

Once having been “caught,” he said, the president was guilty of ‘one of the most blatant efforts at a cover up in history.’

Mr Schiff said senators would need to “decide what kind of democracy that you believe we ought to be. And what the American people have a right to expect in the conduct of their president.”

The Democrats have 24 hours over three days to present their opening arguments followed by the same time frame for the president’s lawyers.

Senators will then get 16 hours in which to ask questions and then a key vote will be taken on whether to allow new witnesses to testify.

Democrats say there cannot be a fair trial without witnesses but they will need to convince four Republicans to vote with them to get the 51 votes they need to pass a motion permitting new witnesses. That vote will take place late next week.

Some Republicans have discussed the prospect of “witness reciprocity” where, if Democrats are allowed witnesses, then Republicans will also call their own.

Many Republicans want to call Hunter Biden, the son of Democrat Joe Biden, to question him about his lucrative role on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Mr Trump asked Ukraine’s president to announce an investigation into both Bidens during his infamous July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky.

But Mr Schumer said Democrats would oppose calling Hunter Biden because he was not relevant to the impeachment.

“Look, the bottom line is that the witnesses should have something to do with and direct knowledge of the charges against the president,’ he said. “We don’t need to have witnesses that have nothing to do with this that are trying to distract Americans from the truth.’

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia