Lawyers wrap; acquittal seems certain
Democratic prosecutors cite Founding Fathers; Trump team says voters should decide his fate
Closing arguments Monday in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial were directed more toward history than to sway the outcome, one final chance to influence public opinion and set the record ahead of his expected acquittal in the Republican-led Senate.
The House Democratic prosecutors drew on the Founding Fathers and common sense to urge senators — and Americans — to see that Trump’s actions are not isolated but a pattern of behavior that, left unchecked, will allow him to “cheat”’ in the 2020 election.
Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff implored those few Republican senators who have acknowledged Trump’s wrongdoing in the Ukraine matter to prevent a “runaway presidency” and stand up to say “enough.”
“For a man like Donald J. Trump, they gave you a remedy and meant for you to use it. They gave you an oath, and they meant
for you to observe it,” Schiff said. “We have proven Donald Trump guilty. Now do impartial justice and convict him.”
The president’s defense countered the Democrats have been out to impeach Trump since the start of his presidency, nothing short of an effort to undo the 2016 election and try to shape the next one.
“Leave it to the voters to choose,” said White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
He called for an end to the partisan “era of impeachment.”
All that’s left, as the Senate prepares to acquit Trump on Wednesday on charges that he abused power and obstructed Congress, is for Americans to decide the president’s fate
in November.
Most senators acknowledge the House Democratic managers proved their case. Trump was impeached in December on two charges: that he abused his power when he pushed Ukraine to investigate rival Democrats in exchange for military aid, then obstructed Congress by instructing aides to defy House subpoenas.
But key Republicans have decided the president’s actions toward Ukraine do not rise to the level of impeachable offense that warrants the dramatic political upheaval of conviction and removal from office. His acquittal in Wednesday’s vote is all but assured.
GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska called the president’s actions “shameful and wrong,” but in a powerful speech late Monday, she also derided the highly partisan
process. “I cannot vote to convict,” she said.
Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Marco Rubio of Florida and Rob Portman of Ohio also are among those who acknowledge the inappropriateness of Trump’s actions but say they won’t vote to convict.
“What message does that send?” asked Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a House prosecutor. He warned senators that for Trump, the “past is prologue.” He urged the Senate to realize its failure to convict will “allow the president’s misconduct to stand.”
The Senate proceedings are set against a sweeping political backstop, as voters in Iowa on Monday are choosing from among Democratic presidential candidates and Trump is poised to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday.
It is unclear if any Republican
or Democratic senators sworn to do “impartial justice’’ will break from party lines. One centrist Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, W-Va., said he was heavily weighing the vote ahead. He suggested censure could be a bipartisan alternative.
The House Democrats unveiled a striking case centered on Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, running an alternative foreign policy that drew alarm at the highest levels. As part of the “scheme,” Trump held up $391 million in U.S. aid from Ukraine, a fragile ally battling Russia, for his personal political gain, they argued. The money was released after Congress intervened.
As Chief Justice John Roberts presided, the House managers opened their Monday arguments with a plea from Rep. Jason
Crow, D-Colo., a freshman and former Army Ranger: “We cannot and should not leave our common sense at the door.”
One by one, the Democrats drew on their life experiences to remind senators, and Americans, of the simple difference between right and wrong in the case against Trump.
Rep. Val Demings, a former police chief, argued the president is not behaving like someone who is innocent. She warned that if senators do not convict, they will “send a terrible message to the nation that one can get away with abuse of power, cheating and spreading of false narratives.”
Trump defender Kenneth Starr, the former prosecutor whose investigation led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998, complained about the inadequacy of the House prosecutors’
“fast track” case.
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow showed political clips of Democrats calling for impeachment to argue this was the “first totally partisan presidential impeachment in our nation’s history, and it should be our last.”
One key Trump lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who was forced to walk back a sweeping defense of presidential power in last week’s arguments, did not appear.
Trump wanted acquittal secured before he arrives at the Capitol for the State of the Union address Tuesday, but that will not happen.
Senators carrying the power of their votes to the history books wanted additional time to make their own arguments, in public speeches from the floor of the Senate. Those began Monday afternoon and were expected to continue until Wednesday’s vote.