President Trump's legal team said Democrats had failed to make a case for removing the president from office, arguing at his impeachment trial Saturday that there was no evidence he pushed Ukraine's president for an investigation of his political rival in exchange for aid.
In their first chance to address the Senate after three days of arguments by Democratic House impeachment managers, the president's lawyers sought to undercut the Democrats' case that Mr. Trump abused the power of his office by asking a foreign leader to investigate a political rival and obstructed Congress's impeachment inquiry.
The defense team, opting to use just two hours of its time, argued that the president's actions were in the national interest and that Democrats' investigation was politically motivated.
"They're asking you not only to overturn the results of the last electionthey're asking you to remove President Trump from the ballot in an election that's occurring in approximately nine months," White House counsel Pat Cipollone told senators as he opened the session.
Democrats have tried to impress on the chamber the need to hear from witnesses whose testimony the White House blocked during the House investigation, among them acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
While Mr. Trump didn't explicitly bring up aid, Mr. Zelensky told him his country wanted to order more Javelin missiles from the U.S., to which Mr. Trump responded: "I would like you to do us a favor, though." By the time of the call, Mr. Zelensky had been told by several administration officials and people close to the president that he needed to assure Mr. Trump he was willing to undertake the investigations if he wanted a White House meeting, according to testimony to House investigators.
The president's lawyers argued that Mr. Trump couldn't have been leveraging aid to pressure Ukraine to undertake investigations because Kyiv wasn't aware of the hold.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-defense-set-to-address-democrats-charges-11579948201?mod=hp_listc_pos1
In their first chance to address the Senate after three days of arguments by Democratic House impeachment managers, the president's lawyers sought to undercut the Democrats' case that Mr. Trump abused the power of his office by asking a foreign leader to investigate a political rival and obstructed Congress's impeachment inquiry.
The defense team, opting to use just two hours of its time, argued that the president's actions were in the national interest and that Democrats' investigation was politically motivated.
"They're asking you not only to overturn the results of the last electionthey're asking you to remove President Trump from the ballot in an election that's occurring in approximately nine months," White House counsel Pat Cipollone told senators as he opened the session.
Democrats have tried to impress on the chamber the need to hear from witnesses whose testimony the White House blocked during the House investigation, among them acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
While Mr. Trump didn't explicitly bring up aid, Mr. Zelensky told him his country wanted to order more Javelin missiles from the U.S., to which Mr. Trump responded: "I would like you to do us a favor, though." By the time of the call, Mr. Zelensky had been told by several administration officials and people close to the president that he needed to assure Mr. Trump he was willing to undertake the investigations if he wanted a White House meeting, according to testimony to House investigators.
The president's lawyers argued that Mr. Trump couldn't have been leveraging aid to pressure Ukraine to undertake investigations because Kyiv wasn't aware of the hold.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-defense-set-to-address-democrats-charges-11579948201?mod=hp_listc_pos1
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