Bolton revelations roil Trump trial, witness push grows Trump ignores critics, to unveil Israel-palestinian peace plan

Defense injected Biden, his family into the argument for why Trump should not be ousted

WASHINGTON DC: Donald Trump's lawyers, eager to attain his swift acquittal, pushed back forcefully Monday against explosive new allegations from former national security advisor John Bolton, insisting the US president's dealings regarding Ukraine were not impeachable.

The defense also injected Joe Biden and his family directly into the argument for why the president should not be ousted.

At only the third impeachment trial in US history, they stressed that Trump's requests to Ukraine to investigate his potential Democratic White House challenger were motivated by concerns about corruption.

Republicans faced fresh pressure to subpoena Bolton as a firsthand witness at Trump's Senate impeachment trial following new revelations, which could amount to damning evidence about the president's actions.

As Clinton impeachment investigator Ken Starr and Harvard constitutional expert Alan Dershowitz defended the president, three Republican senators indicated they could favor hearing testimony from the 71-year-old Bolton.

According to The New York Times, Bolton, in a draft of his forthcoming book, says Trump told him in August that he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until Kiev helped with investigations of political rivals including Biden, his potential election opponent.

The allegation that Trump withheld the aid for his own political purposes was at the heart of Trump's December impeachment by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Dershowitz argued emphatically that such charges were "unconstitutional grounds" for impeachment.

The 81-year-old also directly sought to neutralize the Bolton developments.

"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of abuse of power or impeachable offense," Dershowitz said.

And he sought to downplay the controversy over Trump's pressure campaign against Kiev.

"Quid pro quo alone is not a basis for abuse of power," Dershowitz added. "It's part of the way foreign policy has been operated by presidents since the beginning of time."

Bolton's manuscript leak has rattled the Senate trial, where lawmakers will vote this week on whether to accept witnesses. Four Republicans would need to join Democrats in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 edge, to allow testimony from Bolton and others.

"It's increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton," Republican Senator Mitt Romney

told reporters.

Senate Republican Susan Collins said the Bolton reports "strengthen the case for witnesses," while Senator Lisa Murkowski allowed that she has been "curious" about what Bolton might say.

Chief Democratic prosecutor Adam Schiff welcomed the news.

"You can't have a trial, a meaningful trial, without witnesses and you certainly can't have one without John Bolton," Schiff said.

While just 51 senators are required to allow trial witnesses, 67 senators -- a twothirds majority -- are needed to remove Trump from office.

Trump attacked his exadvisor on Twitter, saying "I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats" including Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

WASHINGTON DC: President Donald Trump on Tuesday will ignore accusations -- led by the Palestinians themselves -- of pro-israeli bias and unveil what he says is a peace plan capable of solving the Israeli-palestinian conflict.

Long held secret, the plan will finally be aired jointly by Trump and visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Given that it has been rejected by the Palestinians, the latest of many US proposals to address the bitter, multigenerational Mideast conflict might seem to have little future.

But Trump insists he is optimistic and whatever happens, both he and Netanyahu could reap political benefits as they battle respective domestic scandals.

"It might have a chance," Trump said of the plan at an initial Oval Office meeting with Netanyahu on Monday.

Trump, whose impeachment trial in the Senate is entering a critical phase, said his plan was getting widespread support from "many of the Arab nations" and claimed that even Palestinians would come round to the idea.

"It's very good for them, in fact it's overly good for them," Trump told reporters. "We think we will have ultimately the support of the Palestinians."

Netanyahu, praising Trump as "the greatest friend that Israel's had in the White House," described the peace plan as "the deal of the century."

Netanyahu faces corruption charges, as well as a tense election in just over a month where his right-wing Likud is neckand-neck with Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White party.

On Monday, Trump also met separately with Gantz, but the limelight fell almost entirely on the incumbent prime minister -- as will any political dividends from a peace plan favoring Israel.

No Palestinians have been invited to the White House event. They say they were never included in crafting the plan, which was overseen by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Monday urged international powers to boycott the plan, which he said was designed "to protect Trump from impeachment and protect Netanyahu from prison." "It is not a Middle East peace plan," Shtayyeh told a cabinet meeting.

"This plan gives Israel sovereignty over Palestinian territory." The plan, whose details still remained under wraps up to the last minute, has been gestating for so long that skeptics asked whether it really existed.

Aaron David Miller, a Mideast expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Kushner's team wants to "finally, basically demonstrate that they have a plan" -- and to do so ahead of the US presidential election in November.

Trump has already thrown Netanyahu a string of political presents throughout his first term.

These include breaking with international diplomatic consensus to recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which were seized from neighboring Syria, and ending opposition to Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.