Trump lawyers raise defences

Trump’s legal team brushes aside allegations in Bolton book

Washington, Jan. 28: President Donald Trump’s legal team is raising a broad-based attack on the impeachment case against him even as it mostly brushes past allegations in a new book that could undercut a key defence argument at his Senate trial. Former national security adviser John Bolton writes in a manuscript that Trump wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it committed to helping with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden. That assertion matters because Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly insisted that he never tied the suspension of security aid to political investigations.

The revelation clouded White House hopes for a swift end to the impeachment trial, as Democrats demanded witnesses and some Republicans expressed openness to the idea. It also distracted from hours of arguments Monday from Trump’s lawyers, who declared anew that no witness has testified to direct knowledge that Trump’s delivery of aid was contingent on investigations into Democrats. Bolton appeared poised to say exactly that if summoned by the Senate.

“We deal with transcript evidence, we deal with publicly available information,” attorney Jay Sekulow said. “We do not deal with speculation.”

Trump is charged with abusing his presidential power by asking Ukraine’s leader to help investigate Biden at the same time his administration was withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid. A second charge accuses Trump of obstructing Congress in its probe. Republicans are to conclude their arguments Tuesday. On Monday, Trump’s attorneys launched a historical, legal and political attack on the entire impeachment process.