WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s impeachment
trial enters a pivotal week as his defense team resumes its case and
senators face a critical vote on whether to hear witnesses or proceed
directly to a vote that is widely expected to end in his acquittal. The
articles of impeachment charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction
of Congress.
Those
decisions on witnesses may be complicated by reports that Trump said he
wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it
aided political investigations into his Democratic rivals, That’s from
former national security adviser John Bolton in a draft of his
forthcoming book. The report by The New York Times was later confirmed
by The Associated Press. The revelation challenges the defense offered
up by Trump and his attorneys in his impeachment trial.
The
Capitol Hill maneuvering will be complemented by high-stakes efforts on
both sides of the aisle to claim political advantage from the
proceedings as the presidential nominating season kicks off in Iowa on
Feb. 3.
What to watch as the Senate impeachment trial resumes Monday at 1 p.m. EST:
___
STAR TURN IN DEFENSE
After
a two-hour opening argument Saturday, Trump’s defense team will lay out
its case in depth beginning Monday. White House counsel Pat Cipollone
said Trump’s lawyers don’t expect to take the full 24 hours allotted to
them, but there will be arguments from some familiar faces.
Harvard
law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, former independent counsel Ken
Starr and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will speak on
specific topics.
Dershowitz
said Sunday he would argue that the charges against Trump are too minor
to warrant the president’s removal from office under the Constitution.
“Even if true, they did not allege impeachable offenses,” Dershowitz
told “Fox News Sunday.”
The
Trump team has also teased the notion that it would draw attention to
Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas
company Burisma, while the elder Biden was vice president. An extended
focus on Joe Biden, one of the leading Democratic presidential
contenders, could mean blowback from even some of the GOP members of the
Senate.
___
QUESTION TIME
Once
Trump’s team concludes, senators will have 16 hours to ask questions of
both the House impeachment prosecutors and the president’s legal team.
Their questions must be in writing.
Chief
Justice John Roberts will read the questions aloud. He is expected to
alternate between both sides of the aisle. Many senators have been
talking copious notes throughout the trial in preparation for the
question-and-answer time.
Sen.
John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters Saturday that Republicans
expected to get together on Monday to start formulating a list of
questions. “We will meet as a conference and decide what questions we
want to pose, what the order may be of those of those questions,” he
said.
___
WILL THEY OR WON’T THEY
Under
the Senate rules passed last week, senators will get another chance to
vote whether to consider new witnesses and evidence after the Q&A
time is elapsed. Four Republicans would have to break ranks to join
Democrats in the GOP-controlled Senate to extend the trial for an
undetermined amount of time.
If
that happens, expect a bitter fight over which witnesses might be
called and which documents might be subpoenaed. Democrats have called
for testimony from Trump’s former national security adviser, John
Bolton, and his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney. An attempt to call
either probably would lead to a showdown with the White House, which
claims both men have “absolute immunity” from being called to testify
before the Senate, even in an impeachment trial. Still, Bolton has said
he would appear if issued a subpoena by the Senate.
While
Republicans have hoped for a speedy trial, Trump has called for the
testimony of the Bidens and the intelligence community whistleblower
whose summer complaint about Trump’s July telephone call with Ukraine’s
leader instigated the impeachment inquiry.
But some Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have expressed resistance to calling those witnesses.
If
the vote fails, the Senate could move swiftly to its vote on whether to
remove or acquit Trump, giving the president the result he’s been
looking for as soon as the end of the week.
Senate
rules also call for four hours of deliberations before voting. Since
senators are required to sit silently during the trial, expect a closed
session where they can deliberate in private.
___
A NEW TAPE
Trump’s lawyers argued Saturday that no one knows what Trump’s motives were on holding up military assistance to Ukraine. A recording
obtained by The Associated Press hours later suggests the president
well understood that assistance was a point of leverage over Ukraine.
The
recording is of 2018 meeting at the Trump Hotel in Washington that
Trump had with donors. including two now-indicted associates of his
personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The audio portion includes Trump
inquiring about Ukraine, “How long would they last in a fight with
Russia?” He later calls for the firing of the U.S. ambassador to
Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
The
recording contradicts the president’s statements that he didn’t know
the Giuliani associations, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. They are key
figures in the investigation who were indicted last year on campaign
finance charges.
If new evidence and witnesses are allowed, the recording could take center stage in the Senate proceedings.
___
THE POLITICS
The
trial is resuming with one week to go until the Iowa caucuses, and is
again keeping four Democratic contenders — Sens. Bernie Sanders,
Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet and Amy Klobuchar — in Washington
instead of campaigning at a critical point in the race.
While
they are trapped in Washington, Trump will venture outside the capital
as he seeks both to exert political retribution on Democrats who
impeached him and reward a party-switching lawmaker who backed him in
the House.
Trump
will hold a rally Tuesday in New Jersey to repay the favor to Rep. Jeff
Van Drew, who became a Republican last month after voting against the
articles of impeachment as a Democrat. And Trump is set to appear in
Iowa on Thursday, days before the caucuses.
Meanwhile,
Trump is already looking ahead to his likely acquittal, whenever it may
come, promising that Democrats will face consequences for trying to
remove him from office. “Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and
probably a very sick man,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “He has not paid the
price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”
Schiff,
D-Calif., is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the lead
impeachment manager. Asked on NBC’s ``Meet the Press″ whether he viewed
the tweet as a threat, Schiff replied, “I think it’s intended to be.″
___
NADLER ABSENT
Rep.
Jerrold Nadler, one of the House managers for the Senate trial, will
miss Monday’s proceedings because of his wife’s illness.
In
a statement, the New York Democrat said he would be in New York that
day to discuss with doctors his wife’s ongoing treatment for pancreatic
cancer. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Nadler has been a
key member of the Democratic team investigating and prosecuting the case
against the president.
—-
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Eric Tucker, Laurie Kellman and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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