As impeachment defense opens, Trump attorneys accuse Democrats of ‘blind drive’ to impeachment by alexnazaryan
“The president did absolutely nothing wrong,” said White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who is leading Trump’s defense. That was a recurring theme of the session, which followed three days of presentations by House Democratic impeachment managers, and took up just two hours of the eight that Senate rules allowed. The trial will resume Monday at 1 p.m.
The previous evening, members of the president’s legal team told reporters on a conference call that the Biden name would come up frequently in their arguments. But that presumably will be put off until subsequent sessions; the session on Saturday, a time Trump has disparaged as “Death Valley” for television ratings, was devoted to attacks on the Democratic case by Cipollone, Jay Sekulow and other attorneys.
At this point, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., could be seen suppressing a yawn, then, moments later, attempting to do so again. In the front row, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sat with his chair pushed back. His binder was unopened, his water glass untouched. In the very back of the chamber, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sat with a wry, skeptical smile on his face.
Trump’s attorneys also argued that the Ukrainians did not know that the funds were being held up until Politico reported on the hold in the last days of August. However, as Yahoo News previously reported, the Department of Defense had pushed all summer for the release of the funds, and that by August both legislators and military contractors had grown irritated by the delay as well. Other outlets have reported that the Ukrainians knew about the hold well before the news was made public.
The president’s attorneys also pointed out that the aid to Ukraine was, in fact, released. They didn’t mention that this took place on Sept. 11, two days after the inspector general of intelligence community notified Congress of the complaint in a letter.
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