Trump defence team begins arguments

Lawyers for US President Donald Trump began his defense at the Senate impeachment trial yesterday, arguing that Democrats’ efforts to remove the president from office would set a “very, very dangerous” precedent in an election year.

For the last three days, Democrats laid made case for the removal of Trump from office for pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, and then trying to cover it up by impeding a congressional investigation. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, the head of the defense team, told Senators they would be denying voters their right to give their opinion on Trump at the Nov 3 presidential election if they found him guilty and ousted him now.

In only the third US presidential impeachment trial, Democrats argued earlier this week that Trump should be removed for pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, and then trying to cover it up by impeding a congressional investigation. “You’ll find that the president did absolutely nothing wrong,” Cipollone said.

Trump is expected to be acquitted in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is required to convict and remove a president from office. No Republican senator has voiced any support for his ouster.

Yesterday’s session will be a relatively short one of up to three hours because Republicans want to save the bulk of their arguments for early next week when they expect television viewership to be higher.