House Democrats to continue detailing case against President Trump in Senate trial
WASHINGTON – House Democrats will continue detailing their case against President Donald Trump as the Senate impeachment trial resumes Thursday and are expected to focus on the Constitution and the legal grounds for the president’s removal.
The seven prosecutors, who are called managers, spoke for eight hours Wednesday mostly about the article accusing Trump of abuse of power. They chronicled their evidence about Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, while withholding $391 million in military aid.
“I think it’s a gross abuse of power,” said the lead manager, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif. “And I don’t think that the impeachment power is a relic. If it is a relic, I wonder how much longer our Republic can succeed.”
On Thursday, the group is expected to focus on the Constitution and lay out the legal framework that they say merits Trump’s removal from office. Schiff said the group would “apply the facts to the law as it relates to the president’s abuse of power.”
The seven managers will have up to 24 hours spread over three sessions to make their arguments. Then Trump’s defense team, which is led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and private lawyer Jay Sekulow, will have up to 24 hours over three sessions to rebut the charges or make their own arguments.
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Sekulow told reporters that the defense lawyers, during their turn, would first respond to the House charges and then “we are going to make an affirmative case defending the president.”
After hearing the opening arguments, senators will have up to 16 hours to pose written questions to both sides through Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding.
As the arguments got underway, Trump spent Tuesday and Wednesday at an economic conference in Davos, Switzerland. But he will be in Washington Thursday as the trial continues.
Trump criticized the trial and called two of the managers – Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. – “major sleazebags” during a news conference Wednesday.
“It’s total hoax. It’s a disgrace. They talked about their tremendous case. They have no case,” Trump said.
Schiff summarized the case over about two hours Wednesday by offering a chronology of the events, documents and testimony that the inquiry collected.
Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., described how Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, smeared Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, before the president removed her. Democrats argued that her removal opened the door to pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who worked for a Ukraine gas company.
“It is beyond argument that President Trump mounted a sustained pressure campaign to get Ukraine to announce investigations that would benefit him politically, and then tried to cover it up,” Nadler said.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, highlighted how Giuliani’s push for investigations benefited Trump personally rather than the national interest.
“Giuliani admitted that he was asking Ukraine to work on investigations that could be ‘very, very helpful’ to the president,” Garcia said.
Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger, focused on the suspension of military aid for Ukraine while at war with Russia.
“Ukrainian soldiers were manning the front lines against Russian-backed forces illegally occupying their country,” said Crow, D-Colo.
Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., described how White House officials dangled the opportunity for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit the White House – if he announced investigations against the Bidens.
But former national adviser John Bolton opposed the exchange, deriding it was a “drug deal” cooked up by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Demings said.
“Mr. Giuliani became an inescapable presence to both Ukrainian officials and American diplomats,” Demings said.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., went line by line through the summary of Trump’s July 25 call with Zelensky, when the president asked his counterpart to investigate the Bidens.
“These words will live in infamy,” Jeffries said of Trump asking for “a favor.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., walked through the lack of public explanation for why the administration suspended military aid for Ukraine or for why it was released Sept. 11.
“Nothing to justify the president’s change in decision – except he got caught,” Lofgren said.
