Trump ‘doesn’t understand why he’s facing impeachment’
DONALD Trump spent the weekend complaining to friends that he ‘can’t understand why he is being impeached’.
On the eve of his impeachment trial, the US President has been asking, ‘Why are they doing this to me?’, a White House source said.
Mr Trump has been at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Florida, and has been ‘distracted’ by the trial, which is due to start tomorrow.
The comments, reported by the CNN TV channel, came as lawyers for the President filed their first response to the charges and described impeachment as a ‘ brazen and unlawful’ attempt to remove him from office.
They said that the impeachment allegations were ‘ no crime at all, let alone “high crimes and misdemeanors” as required by the constitution’.
The start of the trial is expected to bring America to a standstill, as the Senate begins to hear evidence and to decide whether to remove the President from office.
Mr Trump – only the third President to be impeached – has assembled a ‘dream team’ of lawyers to represent him including Kenneth Starr, who led the impeachment inquiry into Bill Clinton after his affair with 19-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky was discovered.
He has also hired Alan Dershowitz, who helped get OJ Simpson off murder charges and represented millionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Trump reportedly hired the men because he wants them to perform well on TV during the trial.
In their six-page response they say that the allegations are ‘constitutionally invalid’.
In December the House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment against Mr Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The first relates to him trying to pressure Ukraine’s government to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, who is likely to be the Democratic presidential candidate in this year’s election, and Mr Biden’s son Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian gas company.
The second is for refusing to let key witnesses testify in the impeachment hearings.
Mr Trump did not comment on the CNN report but he did tweet: ‘I have never seen the
Republican Party as strong and as unified as it is right now. Thank you!’ He is counting on the Republican majority in the Senate to acquit him, which seems all but certain.
According to Mr Trump’s lawyers, the impeachment is a ‘brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away’. They write
‘Brazen and unlawful’
that the ‘entire process is nothing more than a dangerous attack on the American people themselves and their fundamental right to vote’.
The letter adds: ‘ President Trump categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation in both articles of impeachment’.
In their 111-page summary of the allegations, the seven Democrats who are prosecuting the case write: ‘President Trump’s ongoing pattern of misconduct demonstrates that he is an immediate threat to the nation and the rule of law.’
A major sticking point in the trial which has not been resolved is whether witnesses will be allowed to give evidence. Democrats want to call Lev Parnas, an associate of Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who claims the President knew about the approach to Ukraine. They also want to call John Bolton, Mr Trump’s ex-national security adviser.
Meanwhile, a new book sheds fresh light on the President’s tantrums. It claims that while discussing US action in Afghanistan Mr Trump once told his top generals: ‘I wouldn’t go to war with you people... you’re a bunch of dopes and babies.’
It came after senior commanders asked him to come to the Pentagon situation room six months into his presidency to educate him on ‘gaping holes’ in his knowledge of military affairs, according to the book by Washington Post journalist Philip Rucker.