‘We the people’ on trial

President Trump launches first missive in response to impeachment summons

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump is set to deliver a fiery response to his impeachment summons with legal documents claiming the trial is an attack on the rights of the American people to select their president.

It comes as his conduct has been branded the “worst nightmare” of the nation’s founding fathers and he is accused of abandoning his oath and betraying the public trust.

The fresh claims against Mr Trump (pictured) have been made in an explosive brief filed by House Democrats ahead of his impeachment trial this week. But Mr Trump’s legal team is set to deliver a strong response to its impeachment summons, outlining the defences it expects to use in the upcoming trial. The summons calls the two articles of impeachment passed by the House last month “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president”.

The document offers a taste of the rhetoric expected to be deployed by the president’s defenders in the senate.

“This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away,” the filing states.

The summons has been outlined by two people close to the president’s legal team on the condition of anonymity.

Mr Trump’s legal team — led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow — is challenging the impeachment on both procedural and constitutional grounds, claiming the president has been mistreated by House Democrats and that he did nothing wrong.

Mr Trump’s attorneys argue that the articles of impeachment are unconstitutional in and of themselves, and invalid because they don’t allege a crime. Mr Trump was impeached by the House on one count each of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Under the Constitution impeachment is a political, not a criminal process, and the president can be removed from office if found guilty of whatever politicians consider “high crimes and misdemeanours”.

Mr Trump’s legal return is the first salvo in what will be several rounds of arguments before the trial is expected to formally begin on Tuesday.

Mr Trump is expected to file a more detailed legal brief today.

It comes as Democrats on Friday released more information turned over by Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.