Trump team nears end of arguments

President Donald Trump’s lawyers launched their final day of arguments in his US impeachment trial as the Senate’s top Democrat yesterday rejected a Republican proposal to let senators review former national security adviser John Bolton’s explosive, unpublished book manuscript on a classified basis.

Trump’s lawyers made the case to the Senate on Monday that the Republican president’s actions as described in Bolton’s manuscript - even if true - do not represent an impeachable offense. Trump’s legal team was due to deliver its third and final day of arguments urging his acquittal starting at around 1 pm (1800 GMT), with plans to finish by dinner time.

Directly contradicting Trump’s account of events, Bolton, in the manuscript, said the president told him he wanted to freeze $391 million in security aid to Ukraine until Kiev pursued investigations into Democrats, including Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, the New York Times reported.

Bolton’s allegations go to the heart of impeachment charges against Trump. Democrats have said Trump abused his power by using the security aid - passed by Congress to help Ukraine battle Russia-backed separatists - as leverage to get a foreign power to smear a political rival.

Trump is seeking re-election on Nov 3. Biden is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination to face Trump.

The trial will determine whether Trump is removed from office after being impeached by the Democratic-led House of Representatives last month on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress arising from his conduct toward Ukraine.

Trump is expected to be acquitted in the 100-seat Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats and a two-thirds majority is needed to remove him from office under the US Constitution.

The Senate may resolve the issue of whether to call witnesses in a vote on Friday or Saturday. Some moderate Republican senators, including Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, said the disclosures were likely to sway at least four Republicans to call Bolton to testify, which would give Democrats the votes necessary in the Republican-led Senate to summon him.

The focus was on whether two other moderate Republicans, Lamar Alexander and Lisa Murkowski, would vote to hear from Bolton.