House managers: Trump is the “Framers’ worst nightmare come to life”
House impeachment managers called Mr. Trump the “Framers’ worst nightmare come to life,” urging the Senate to “place truth above faction” and convict the president on both articles of impeachment
The managers submitted a new nine-page filing to the secretary of the Senate in response to Mr. Trump’s answer to a trial summons, which his legal team submitted Saturday.
In their filing, the House managers rejected the arguments raised by the president’s lawyers and said Mr. Trump violated his oath of office by using his presidential powers to pressure Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election for his own gain.
“President Trump maintains that the Senate cannot remove him even if the House proves every claim in the Articles of impeachment. That is a chilling assertion. It is also dead wrong,” the impeachment managers wrote. “The Framers deliberately drafted a Constitution that allows the Senate to remove presidents who, like President Trump, abuse their power to cheat in elections, betray our national security, and ignore checks and balances. That President Trump believes otherwise, and insists he is free to engage in such conduct again, only highlights the continuing threat he poses to the nation if allowed to remain in office.”
The impeachment managers said Mr. Trump “offers an unconvincing and implausible defense against the factual allegations” detailed in the first article, abuse of power, and note that none of his predecessors have ordered officials to defy an impeachment subpoena. Mr. Trump’s order for White House officials not to comply with those subpoenas are at the heart of the second article, obstruction of Congress.
“President Trump did not engage in this corrupt conduct to uphold the Presidency or protect the right to vote. He did it to cheat in the next election and bury the evidence when he got caught,” the impeachment managers wrote.
White House legal brief calls impeachment “an affront to the Constitution”
In a legal brief ahead of his Senate trial, President Trump’s legal team argues that the articles of impeachment passed by the House are “an affront to the Constitution” and should be rejected by the Senate.
The 110-page brief was written by Mr. Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who are leading his impeachment defense. The White House filed it with the Senate ahead of a noon deadline.
The document lays out many of the same assertions that appeared a six-page brief the president’s team filed over the weekend, largely that the “flimsy” impeachment articles “allege no crime or violation of law whatsoever” and don’t warrant his removal from office.
Read more here.
Trump denounces push for witnesses in Senate trial
Mr. Trump condemned efforts by Democrats to compel testimony from witnesses during his impeachment trial.
“They didn’t want John Bolton and others in the House. They were in too much of a rush. Now they want them all in the Senate. Not supposed to be that way!” he tweeted Monday, referring to his former national security adviser. House investigators requested Bolton’s testimony in the early stages of the impeachment inquiry, and he declined to appear for a deposition or testify publicly.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said Sunday he intends to force votes on whether the Senate should hear from four witnesses and consider three sets of documents during Mr. Trump’s impeachment proceedings.
The four witnesses Schumer wants to testify are Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, senior adviser to Mulvaney Robert Blair and Office of Management and Budget associate director Michael Duffey.
Bolton said he would appear for questioning during the Senate trial if subpoenaed.
Former GOP Senator Jeff Flake criticizes “cult of personality” around Trump
Former Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who declined to seek reelection over his disagreements with the president, said Monday that the Republicans’ “cult of personality” of Mr. Trump will hurt the party even after the president leaves office.
In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, Flake wrote that Republicans are on trial along with the president.
“This president won’t be there forever,” Flake, a CBS News contributor, said on “CBS This Morning” on Monday. “He’ll either be gone by this time next year or four years from now. Then what happens to the Republican Party? My fear is people out there know that, even if this is not an impeachable offense, that the president did something wrong, and for Republicans to maintain that he didn’t is just wrong, and this has long-term ramifications for the party if we act as if we are just devoted to the president no matter what, and this cult of personality that we’ve seen, we certainly saw it in the House.”
Read more here.
What’s next in the impeachment trial
Filing of legal briefs
The House designated seven impeachment managers on Wednesday, who will prosecute the case against Mr. Trump in the Senate trial. Although the Senate is in recess, the impeachment managers and Mr. Trump’s attorneys worked over the long holiday weekend to prepare legal briefs for use in the trial. The House filed its brief on Saturday.
Monday, January 20, 12 p.m.: Trial brief by Mr. Trump’s lawyers is due.
Tuesday, January 21, 12 p.m.: House impeachment managers’ rebuttal brief is due, should they wish to file one.
Senate impeachment rules
Tuesday, January 21, 12:30 p.m.: The Senate reconvenes and is expected to debate an organizing resolution to designate the rules for the trial, including the duration of the arguments. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will likely try to force a vote requiring the Senate to call witnesses, but Republicans have so far expressed unity in delaying decisions on witnesses until later in the trial.
Opening arguments
Tuesday, January 21: After the vote on the impeachment rules, the House managers and president’s legal team will make their opening arguments. The senators are required to sit silently, without their electronic devices. And after the arguments, if they have questions, they may submit them in writing. Roberts will read each question aloud, and the legal team addressed in the question will answer.
Nadler: White House’s impeachment rebuttal was “errant nonsense”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, one of seven impeachment managers who will present the chamber’s case in the Senate trial, called a response to the two articles of impeachment from the president’s legal team “errant nonsense.”
The articles, passed by the House last month, charge Mr. Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and on Saturday, the White House released its formal response to the trial summons issued by the Senate last week.
The White House argued the articles “fail to allege any crime or violation of law” and that the president asserted legitimate “executive branch confidentiality interests” that cannot constitute obstruction of Congress.
“Both of those statements are errant nonsense,” Nadler, a Democrat from New York, said on “Face the Nation” in response to the president’s rebuttal. “There is ample evidence, overwhelming evidence. Any jury would convict in three minutes flat that the president betrayed his country by breaking the law.”
Read more here.
Cornyn says Democrats are “getting cold feet” on impeachment
House Democrats are “getting cold feet” about their impeachment efforts against President Trump ahead of the start of the trial in the Senate, Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said Sunday.
The Senate proceedings involving Mr. Trump are set to begin Tuesday, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expected to offer an organizing resolution laying out the rules for the trial. But a crucial question of whether witnesses will be called to testify remains unanswered.
A decision about additional witnesses will be deferred until after the House’s impeachment managers and Mr. Trump’s legal team lay out their respective cases for why the president should be convicted or acquitted, Cornyn said, adding the push for more officials to be called suggests Democrats may not be fully prepared.
“This seems to undermine or indicate they’re getting cold feet or have a lack of confidence in what they’ve done so far,” Cornyn, the majority whip, told “Face the Nation.”
Read more here.
