24, January 2020
US: Parties in Trump impeachment trial clash over relevance of the Bidens’ Ukraine dealings 0
Democrats worked methodically at U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Thursday to dismantle his long-standing allegation that Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden acted improperly toward Ukraine while vice president.
On the second day of their arguments for Trump’s removal from office, Democratic House of Representatives members argued that Biden did nothing wrong and was only carrying out official U.S. policy when he pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, Victor Shokin, because of corruption concerns.
Trump and his allies maintain that Biden wanted Shokin out in order to head off an investigation into a natural gas company, Burisma, where his son Hunter served as a director. Democrats said no evidence supported that allegation.
House managers spent Thursday focusing on the charge that Trump abused his office by pressing Ukraine to investigate the Bidens purely for political gain.
They argued that Trump pushed the Ukrainian government to probe Biden and his son because he was worried about facing the former vice president in November’s election. Biden is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“If we allow this gross abuse of power to continue, this president would have free rein – free rein – to abuse his control of U.S. foreign policy for personal interest, and so would any other future president,” U.S. Representative Sylvia Garcia said on the Senate floor. “And then this president, and all presidents, become above the law.”
Democrats contend senators should convict Trump on two charges brought by the Democratic-led House – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
But the Senate, which is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, remains unlikely to do so. A two-thirds majority is needed to remove him from office.
The U.S. Constitution sets out the impeachment process for removing a president who commits “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Trump’s legal team has argued that the House charges were invalid because impeachable offenses must represent a specific violation of criminal law.
Trump condemned the proceedings as “unfair & corrupt” in a Twitter post on Thursday.
The charges against Trump arise from his request in a July 25 phone call last year that Ukraine investigate Biden on unsubstantiated corruption allegations and the president’s actions to impede a House inquiry into the matter.
Trump also asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate a discredited theory beneficial to Russia that Ukraine worked with Democrats to hurt Trump in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump temporarily withheld $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, which Democrats say was leverage for his demands.
‘Opened the door’
Trump’s lawyers quickly argued that by bringing up the Bidens, Democrats had made their conduct a relevant subject for the rest of the trial.
“They opened the door. They opened the door and it’s now relevant,” Jay Sekulow, a personal lawyer for the president and a member of his defense team, told reporters at the Capitol. “So we will address the appropriate issues as defense lawyers would.”
Added Republican Senator Ted Cruz: “Hunter Biden is not only relevant, he is now critical.”
But Sekulow said Trump’s team was not yet focused on whether new witnesses will be called, a matter the Senate will take up after senators have a chance to submit questions to both sides next week.
Trump’s lawyers are likely to begin their defense of the president on Saturday, after House Democrats finish their opening arguments.
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said House managers on Friday would focus on the charge that Trump unlawfully obstructed Congress by keeping key administration officials from testifying and by refusing requests for documents.
As the arguments again went deep into the evening, Republican senators continued to complain the House presentation had become repetitive and that they were looking forward to the president’s defense.
Democrats countered by saying Republicans had blocked their attempts to bring new evidence to light through additional witnesses and documents.
Signs emerged on the second day of arguments that the Democratic case was losing some of the public’s attention. There were empty seats in the gallery overlooking the Senate floor.
Television ratings were down. About 8.9 million viewers watched the first day of arguments on Wednesday, falling short of the roughly 11 million who watched on Tuesday, according to Nielsen ratings data.
Senators also showed increasing signs of restlessness, with many wandering to the rear of the chamber where they could make phone calls and check their smartphones.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Garcia poured cold water on a conspiracy theory offered by some Trump defenders that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
“If this sounds far-fetched and crazy, it should, because it is,” the lawmaker said.
U.S. intelligence agencies and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia used a campaign of hacking and social media propaganda to interfere in the election to sow discord in the United States and boost Trump’s candidacy against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Moscow has denied meddling in the election.
The Democrats displayed a November quote from Russian President Vladimir Putin saying: “Thank God nobody is accusing us anymore of interfering in the U.S. elections. Now they’re accusing Ukraine.”
(REUTERS)
31, January 2020
US: Republicans confident they can block new Trump trial witnesses, but uncertainty remains 0
Democratic prosecutors and Republican defenders at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Thursday barreled toward a confrontation over new witnesses, something that would deny Trump the swift conclusion of the matter that he seeks.
As US senators spent a second day firing questions at both legal teams, Republicans, who control the chamber, said they were confident they could hold a final vote and acquit Trump as early as the weekend.
But some holdouts were suggesting they may side with Democrats and demand testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton and perhaps others regarding Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, argued in a submitted question that additional witnesses could be necessary.
“The dispute about material facts weighs in favor of calling additional witnesses with direct knowledge,” Murkowski said.
“Why should this body not call Ambassador Bolton?” Senator Lamar Alexander, a key Republican vote from Tennessee, told CNN he would detail his position on witnesses after Thursday’s session.
Possible testimony from Bolton is of particular interest after a report – which he has not denied – that he planned to say in an upcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to freeze $391 million in US military aid for Ukraine until it investigated Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was vice president.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives impeached Trump in December, formally accusing him of abusing his power for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. The House also charged Trump with obstruction of Congress.
Republicans hold a slim majority in the 100-member Senate, and the defection of more than three on the question of witnesses would prolong Trump’s trial and stymie his allies who hope to hold a final vote soon and minimize the political damage to the president.
Two-thirds of the Senate is required to remove Trump from office. He is unlikely to be convicted.
Earlier in the day, John Barrasso, the Senate’s third-ranking Republican, told reporters that Republicans were likely to beat back the Democratic effort for witnesses.
Trump’s acquittal would allow him to claim vindication just as the Democratic Party holds its first nominating contest for the Nov. 3 election in Iowa on Monday.
Trump held a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday night and slammed the trial, calling it an effort by Democrats to overthrow his 2016 election victory.
“They want to nullify your ballots, poison our democracy and overthrow the entire system of government,” Trump said.
Trying to unmask whistleblower
The two sides also sparred over the unnamed government official whose whistleblower complaint about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine spurred the drive to remove him from office.
Trump and some other Republicans have pressed for months to unmask the intelligence official who filed the report and have tried to paint that person as a partisan figure working with Democrats to destroy Trump’s presidency.
The government has provided security to the whistleblower in response to security threats, according to the person’s lawyers.
On Thursday, the issue boiled to the surface again when US Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial, refused to read a question from Republican Senator Rand Paul that included the name of a person that right-wing media have accused of being the whistleblower.
Paul is one of several Republicans, including Trump, who have posted social-media links to some of those news articles.
“The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted,” Roberts said. He had rejected a similar question the day before.
Paul said his question, which asked whether that person worked with a member of Democratic Representative Adam Schiff’s staff to impeach Trump, was not meant to unmask the whistleblower.
“My question’s not about the whistleblower. My question’s about two people who are friends,” he told reporters.
Democrats disagreed.
“This question was really framed and intended to expose the identity of the whistleblower and subject that whistleblower to retaliation,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters.
Bradley P. Moss, a lawyer whose firm represents the whistleblower, called the Republican effort “a stain on the legacy of this constitutional republic.”
Closing arguments, and climactic vote
On Friday, each side is expected to present closing arguments before the Senate moves to the question of whether to call witnesses, which could inflict political damage on the president as he seeks re-election.
If the vote on whether to allow witnesses is 50-50, Roberts could step in to break the tie. But there is so little precedent for impeachment trials – this is only the third of a president in US history – that Senate aides said there was no way to know exactly what would occur.
If Roberts declines to break a tie, the vote deadlock would mean a defeat for Democrats.
Schiff, the lead Democratic prosecutor in the trial, proposed that both sides conduct closed-door witness depositions for a week while the Senate returns to normal business.
But there was no sign his plea was being considered by Republicans.
(Source: Reuters)