Senate readies for arguments in Trump trial
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s legal team will argue in his Senate trial that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense, while Democrats called that claim “absurdist” and a signal that the president has no defense in the case against him.
The third impeachment trial in U.S. history will start in earnest Tuesday, after its ceremonial opening last week with the swearingin of senators who will serve as jurors and of Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside.
Both sides took to the TV talk shows Sunday to preview their arguments and court public opinion that has shown little movement since House impeachment proceedings began in September.
Democrats said they have built an unassailable case that Trump improperly sought to trade congressionally mandated aid to vulnerable U.S. ally Ukraine in exchange for political favors, in what they allege was an abuse of power. Trump also is charged with obstructing Congress, an accusation leveled after the White House blocked House requests for key witnesses and documents.
One of Trump’s lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, best known for defending celebrity clients like Mike Tyson and O.J. Simpson, said he will argue that even if Trump did everything Democrats say he did, such conduct does not merit impeachment and removal from office.
“You can’t charge a president with impeachable conduct if it doesn’t fit within the criteria for the Constitution,” Dershowitz said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Dershowitz said his legal approach would render irrelevant the question of whether witnesses should be called. Democrats insist the Republicancontrolled Senate should subpoena witnesses, while Republican leaders have refused to commit to doing so.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who recently abandoned a run for the Democratic presidential nomination, took sharp exception.
“This is preposterous that this would not be an impeachable offense — that the standard in America is now that a president can abuse their power to help them in elections,” Booker said on ABC.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., one of the Trump’s most fervent backers and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, echoed Dershowitz’s line of reasoning. Interviewed on “Fox News Sunday,” he said abuse of power was “so poorly defined here” that future presidents would not have a clear sense of pitfalls to be avoided.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to introduce rules for the proceedings.