WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s legal team issued a fiery response Saturday ahead of opening arguments in his impeachment trial,
while House Democrats laid out their case in forceful fashion, saying
the president betrayed public trust with behavior that was the “worst
nightmare” of the founding fathers.
The
dueling filings previewed arguments both sides intend to make once
Trump’s impeachment trial begins in earnest Tuesday in the Senate. Their
challenge will be to make a case that appeals to the 100 senators who
will render the verdict and for an American public bracing for a
presidential election in 10 months.
“President
Donald J. Trump used his official powers to pressure a foreign
government to interfere in a United States election for his personal
political gain,” the House prosecutors wrote, “and then attempted to
cover up his scheme by obstructing Congress’s investigation into his
misconduct.”
Trump’s
legal team, responding to the Senate’s official summons for the trial,
said the president “categorically and unequivocally” denies the charges
of abuse and obstruction against him.
“This
is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016
election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away,”
the president’s filing states.
Stripped
of legalese and structured in plain English, the documents underscored
the extent to which the impeachment proceedings are a political rather
than conventional legal process.
They
are the first of several filings expected in coming days as senators
prepare to take their seats for the rare impeachment court.
Senators
swore an oath to do “impartial justice”′ as the chamber convenes to
consider the two articles of impeachment approved by the House last
month as Trump’s presidency and legacy hangs in balance.
One
Republican whose votes are closely watched, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of
Alaska, acknowledged Saturday the political pressure bearing on them.
“I’m going to take my constitutional obligations very, very seriously,” she told reporters from Anchorage on a call.
The
House’s 111-page brief outlined the prosecutors’ narrative, starting
from Trump’s phone call with Ukraine and relying on the private and
public testimony of a dozen witnesses -- ambassadors and national
security officials at high levels of government -- who raised concerns
about the president’s actions.
The
House managers wrote: “The only remaining question is whether the
members of the Senate will accept and carry out the responsibility
placed on them by the Framers of our Constitution and their
constitutional Oaths.”
The
Trump team called the two articles of impeachment “a dangerous attack
on the right of the American people to freely choose their president.”
Trump’s
team encouraged lawmakers to reject “poisonous partisanship” and
“vindicate the will of the American people” by rejecting both articles
of impeachment approved by the House.
The
Senate is still debating the ground rules of the trial, particularly
the question of whether there will be new witnesses as fresh evidence
emerges over Trump’s Ukraine actions that led to impeachment.
New
information from Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump lawyer Rudy
Giuliani, is being incorporated in the House case. At the same time,
Senate Democrats want to call John Bolton, the former national security
adviser, among other potential eyewitnesses, after the White House
blocked officials from appearing in the House.
With
Republicans controlling the Senate 53-47, they can set the trial rules —
or any four Republicans could join with Democrats to change course.
Murkowski
told reporters she wants to hear both sides of the case before deciding
whether to call for new witnesses and testimony.
“I don’t know what more we need until I’ve been given the base case,” Murkowski said.
The House’s impeachment managers are working through the weekend and will be at the Capitol midday Sunday to prep the case.
Trump’s
answer to the summons was the first salvo in what will be several
rounds of opening arguments. Trump will file a more detailed legal brief
on Monday, and the House will be able to respond to the Trump filing on
Tuesday.
Trump’s
team led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump personal lawyer
Jay Sekulow, is challenging the impeachment on both procedural and
constitutional grounds, claiming Trump has been mistreated by House
Democrats and that he did nothing wrong.
The
filings came a day after Trump finalized his legal team, adding Ken
Starr, the former independent counsel whose investigation into President
Bill Clinton led to his impeachment, and Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law
professor emeritus who intends to make constitutional arguments.
White
House attorneys and Trump’s outside legal team have been debating just
how political Monday’s legal brief laying out the contours of Trump’s
defense should be.
Some
in the administration have echoed warnings from Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that the pleadings must be sensitive to the
Senate’s more staid traditions and leave some of the sharper rhetoric
exhibited during the House proceedings to Twitter and cable news.
One
Democratic aide said Saturday that Trump’s initial filing read more
like a Trump campaign fundraising email than a legal document.
People
close to the Trump legal team said Cipollone would deliver the
president’s opening argument before the Senate and that Sekulow would
follow. Starr and Dershowitz would have “discrete functions” on the
legal team, according to those close to the legal team, who were not
authorized to discuss the strategy by name and spoke on condition of
anonymity.
At
issue in the impeachment case are allegations that Trump asked Ukraine
to announce an investigation of Democratic political rival Joe Biden at
the same time the White House withheld hundreds of nearly $400 million
in aid from the former Soviet republic as it faces a hostile Russia at
its border.
The Government Accountability Office said last week the administration violated federal law by withholding the funds to Ukraine. The money was later released after Congress complained.
The
House brief said, “President Trump’s misconduct presents a danger to
our democratic processes, our national security, and our commitment to
the rule of law. He must be removed from office.
Trump’s
attorneys argue that the articles of impeachment are unconstitutional
in and of themselves and invalid because they don’t allege a crime.
Under
the Constitution impeachment is a political, not a criminal process,
and the president can be removed from office if found guilty of whatever
lawmakers consider “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
_____
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Becky Bohrer in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.
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