UPDATED 1/31/20 8:49AM
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee will oppose calling more witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, all but dashing Democratic efforts to hear more testimony and pushing the Senate toward a vote to acquit Trump today.
A vote on witnesses, expected Friday, could lead to an abrupt end and assured acquittal in only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history. Trump was pressing for action in time for his State of the Union address, and that now seems likely. As the Senate adjourned late Thursday, it set the date for Tuesday night’s speech.
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UPDATED 1/30/20 8:58AM
WASHINGTON (AP) – In a striking shift from President Donald Trump’s claim of “perfect” dealings with Ukraine, his defense asserted at his Senate trial that a trade of U.S. military aid for political favors – even if proven – could not be grounds for his impeachment.
Trump’s defenders relied on retired professor Alan Dershowitz, a member of their team, who told senators that every politician conflates his own interest with the public interest. “It cannot be impeachable,” he declared Wednesday.
Democrats pressed hard to force the Senate to call more witnesses to testify, but Republicans appeared intently focused on bringing the impeachment trial to a vote of acquittal, possibly in a matter of days.
The vote on calling witnesses is expected by Friday.
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UPDATED 1/29/20 8:34AM
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is shifting to questions from senators, a pivotal juncture as Republicans lack the votes to block witnesses and face a potential setback in their hope of ending the trial with a quick acquittal.
After Trump’s defense team rested Tuesday with a plea to “end now,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately told senators he doesn’t yet have the votes to brush back Democratic demands for witnesses now that revelations from John Bolton, the former national security adviser, have roiled the trial.
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UPDATED: 1/28/20 8:42AM
WASHINGTON (AP) – Lawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump will wrap up their presentation in his Senate impeachment trial today, while the question of whether witnesses will be allowed during the proceedings looms.
The president’s defense team spent Monday accusing Democrats of improperly using impeachment as a weapon to get rid of a president they simply don’t like.
One of the nation’s most prominent legal commentators, Alan Dershowitz, brought a touch of star power to the Senate trial of President Donald Trump. The Harvard Law professor argued in Trump’s defense that a crime was required to impeach and remove a president and that the articles of impeachment against Trump cited no crime.
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UPDATED 1/2719 6:51AM
WASHINGTON (AP) – The stakes over witness testimony at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial are rising now that a draft of a book from former national security adviser John Bolton appears to undercut a key defense argument. Bolton writes in the forthcoming book that Trump told him that he wanted to withhold security aid from Ukraine until it helped him with politically charged investigations, including into Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump’s legal team has repeatedly insisted that the Republican president never tied the suspension of military assistance to investigations into Biden and his son. The Trump defense continues when the trial resumes Monday afternoon.
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UPDATED: 1/25/2020 11:29a.m.
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s lawyers have opened their impeachment trial defense in a rare Saturday session by accusing Democrats of striving to overturn the results of the 2016 election. They say the Democrats’ investigation into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine was not a fact-finding mission but rather a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House. The legal team arguments were aimed at rebutting allegations that Trump abused his power when he asked Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and then obstructed Congress as it tried to investigate. The defense is asserting an expansive view of presidential powers and portraying Trump as besieged by political opponents.
UPDATED: 7:50 1-24-20
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic House prosecutors have made an expansive argument at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial that he abused power like no other president in history, swept up by a “completely bogus” theory about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
Today, Democrats will press their final day of arguments before skeptical Republican senators on the other charge against the president, obstruction of Congress. “Right matters,” lead prosecutor Adam Schiff told senators in a late night speech. Trump’s defense team is waiting its turn, which will come Saturday.
UPDATED: 10:30 1-23-20:
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Democrats prosecuting President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial are preparing for a second day of arguments. Democrats alleging a “corrupt scheme” by Trump involving Ukraine are trying to win over not just fidgety senators but an American public deeply divided by the Republican president’s actions.
Prosecutors are relying on the same loops of videotaped testimony after Trump’s allies in the Republican-controlled Senate blocked new witnesses. The repetition and the long hours in back-to-back days of proceedings have left some senators yawning, stretching and pacing. Each side has 24 hours over three days to make its case. Trump’s defense team is eager for its turn, likely to begin Saturday.
WASHINGTON D.C. (WBAP/KLIF News) – President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate begins this afternoon.
The Republican-controlled Senate will take up the issue after House Democrats impeached Trump last month on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges.
The articles stem from Trump’s alleged request of the Ukranian president to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter on allegations of corruption ahead of the 2020 election while withholding security aid approved by Congress.
On the eve of Tuesday’s trial, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell released a resolution about the rules of the trial.
It condenses opening arguments by the impeachment managers and Trump’s attorneys to 24 hours each over two days, followed up by up to 16 hours of questioning via written submissions by Senators.
Senators can call for witnesses but ensuring they testify requires at least 51 votes.
Republicans and Democrats, who have spoken out against these rules, will debate the resolution before opening arguments get underway.
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