Defense team concludes, argues against Bolton
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s legal team argued forcefully against the relevance of testimony from Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday as they concluded their defense and the Senate braced for debate on whether to summon Bolton and other witnesses into the impeachment trial.
“This should end now, as quickly as possible,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone declared, capping a defense presentation that painted Trump as a victim and took dismissive swipes at Bolton, the potential witness who has scrambled Republican hopes for a swift end to the trial.
A day after the defense team largely brushed past Bolton, attorney Jay Sekulow addressed the controversy headon by dismissing his manuscript — said to contradict a key defense argument about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine — as “inadmissible.” The argument was meant to preempt calls from Democrats for witnesses including Bolton, who writes in a forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it helped with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden.
“It is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts,” Sekulow said.
The argument built on a separate one Monday night from Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz, who said that nothing in the manuscript — even if true — rises to the level of an impeachable offense. Sekulow also sought to undermine the credibility of Bolton’s book by noting that Attorney General William Barr has disputed comments attributed to him by Bolton.
The legal team also delved into areas that Democrats see as outside the scope of impeachment, chastising former FBI Director James Comey and seizing on surveillance errors the FBI has acknowledged making in its Russian election interference probe.
Trump’s attorneys argued that the Founding Fathers took care to make sure that impeachment was narrowly defined, with offenses clearly enumerated.
“The bar for impeachment cannot be set this low,” Sekulow said. “Danger. Danger. Danger.
These articles must be rejected. The Constitution requires it. Justice demands it.”
While scoffing at the manuscript, Trump and the Republicans have strongly resisted summoning Bolton to testify in person about what he saw and heard as Trump’s top national security adviser.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told senators privately Tuesday he does not yet have the votes to block new witnesses.
McConnell convened a closeddoor meeting of GOP senators shortly after Trump’s legal team made its closing arguments. He faced a handful of potential defections, but several days remained before any potential witness vote would be taken.