Democrats use words of Trump’s staunchest allies to make their case in his impeachment trial
Democrats on Thursday pressed their case for removing U.S. President Donald Trump from office by using the words of his own allies against him to make the point that his actions were impeachable.
However, Trump’s fellow Republicans serving as the jury in his Senate impeachment trial showed no signs of turning against him.
The Democrats are presenting arguments that Trump should be convicted of two articles of impeachment passed by the House last month — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden last year, and impeding a congressional inquiry into the matter.
The U.S. Constitution sets out the impeachment process for removing a president who commits «high crimes and misdemeanours.» Trump’s legal team argues the House charges are invalid because impeachable offences must represent a specific violation of criminal law.
«Impeachment is not a punishment for crimes,» Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler told the assembled senators. «Impeachment exists to address threats to the political system, applies only to political officials and responds not by imprisonment or fines but only by stripping political power.»
Nadler played a video clip of one of Trump’s most prominent defenders, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, arguing during the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton that presidents can be impeached even if the conduct in question was not a statutory criminal violation.
Nadler also played a video clip from 1998 of Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump’s legal team, in which he recognizes that abuse of power is impeachable. Finally, Nadler cited a memo written by Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, that made the same point.
Watch that part of Nadler’s presentation:
«As our recital of the facts indicated, the articles are overwhelmingly supported by the evidence amassed by the House, notwithstanding the president’s complete stonewalling, his attempt to block all witnesses and all documents from the United States Congress,» Nadler said.
«His conduct is not America first. It is Donald Trump first.»
Blocked so far in their drive to persuade the Republican-led Senate to let them call new witnesses, Democrats are using their time instead to outline an extensive narrative, complete with video clips, based on the testimony presented during hearings in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
The top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, made a fresh appeal on Thursday for Republican senators to join with Democrats in voting to allow witnesses and new evidence to be presented in the trial. Republicans control the 100-seat Senate. Four of the Senate’s 53 Republicans would have to join the Democrats in order to win a simple majority vote.
«The issue of relevant evidence, documents and witnesses is going to come back up. And Senate Republicans will have the power to bring that evidence into the trial,» Schumer told reporters.
«Republican senators — four of them, it’s in their hands — can make this trial more fair, if they want to,» he said.
The case focuses on Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden, a top contender for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the Nov. 3 presidential election, and Biden’s son on unsubstantiated corruption allegations.
Trump also asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a discredited theory beneficial to Russia that Ukraine was somehow linked to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee server during the 2016 U.S. election. Last year, Trump temporarily withheld $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, which Democrats say was leverage for his demands.
Trump’s own intelligence agencies repeatedly debunked the theory, but Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, continued to push it and pursue it.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff talked about the fact many people blamed Giuliani for the theory, but suggested it demonstrates how Trump poses a grave danger to the United States.
Watch that moment from today’s proceedings:
Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia made a presentation portraying corruption allegations against Biden as groundless. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said Garcia’s presentation opened the door for members of the president’s legal team to address Biden’s conduct when they make their case to the Senate.
Trump is almost certain to be acquitted by the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is needed to remove him from office.
Even if finding Trump guilty seems to be a long shot for Democrats, the trial presents an opportunity to inflict political damage on Trump ahead of the November election, with millions of Americans watching the televised proceedings.
Trump, who arrived back in Washington on Wednesday night from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, condemned the proceedings as «unfair & corrupt» in a Twitter post on Thursday.
‘The Shopping Channel’
Some Republican senators said they have heard nothing new in the presentation made by the Democratic managers.
Sen. Thom Tillis told reporters he has already made up his mind to vote for acquittal. Referring to the Democrats’ presentation, Tillis told reporters, «It reminds of The Shopping Channel, the hits of the ’80s, you hear it again and again and again and again. I can almost recite the testimony.»
Sen. James Lankford called it «a more organized presentation of the same facts.»
Other Republicans were more circumspect. Sen. Mitt Romney said, «Sorry, but I’m not going to be commenting on the evidence or process until the entire trial is over.»
Schumer called the arguments presented by the Democratic managers «powerful,» «precise» and «devastating.» Referring to Senate Republicans, Schumer said: «It may have planted the first seed in their minds that, yes, perhaps the president did something very wrong here.»
Trump denies wrongdoing and his fellow Republicans have said his conduct did not fit the description of «high crimes and misdemeanors» outlined in the U.S. Constitution as rationale to oust a president.
Focus on the law
The Senate’s schedule means Trump’s defence team, a group of White House lawyers and outside counsel who will be given three days for rebuttal to the Democratic opening arguments, would likely start to present their case on Saturday.
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said it was unclear whether the Trump defence would need all three days.
«We will make a determination on our presentation based on what we are responding to and based on our affirmative case,» Sekulow said. «I don’t know if it will take 10 hours, 14 hours, 24 hours or six hours.»
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday found 72 per cent of Americans — including 84 per cent of Democrats and 69 per cent of Republicans — want to see new witnesses testify in the impeachment trial.
Trump directed current and former administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton, not to testify or provide documents in the House investigation.
