Teams make closing arguments in Trump impeachment trial

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s legal team said in closing arguments in the Senate impeachment trial Monday that lawmakers should leave it up to the voters in the November election to decide whether he should be removed from office.

But House impeachment managers urged Republicans to stand up to the president’s alleged wrongdoing and vote to remove him and preserve the constitutional checks and balances that were provided by the nation’s founders.

“History will not be kind to Donald Trump,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead House impeachment manager. “I think we know that.”

The closing arguments were made as the Senate impeachment trial winds down and a vote scheduled later this week that will likely end in acquittal for the president.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone said the decision on whether to remove the president from office should be left up to voters at the ballot box. He accused Democrats of turning impeachment into a partisan weapon.

“Reject these articles of impeachment,” Cipollone said. “It’s the right thing for the country.”

House impeachment managers argued that the president abused his office to cheat in the upcoming election, soliciting help from a foreign nation to announce an investigation into a political rival that could give Trump a leg up in his re-election bid.

“We know what the president did, and why he did it,” said Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, one of the managers.

“We all know that he will do it again,” she said. “We must stop him from further harming our democracy.”

The Senate has scheduled a Wednesday vote and Trump is expected to be acquitted on articles of impeachment passed by the House in December that charge him with abuse of office and obstruction of Congress.

Trump has called his impeachment a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.” He said nothing improper was done when he urged Ukraine to announce an investigation into presidential hopeful Joe Biden while the administration withheld $400 million in military aid. (The aid was later provided without an investigation being announced.)

Before the Senate votes, the president will appear Tuesday before a joint session of Congress to deliver his State of the Union address. He will appear on the dais with Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who launched the impeachment inquiry.

As the Senate heard closing arguments, Trump took to Twitter.

“I hope Republicans & the American people realize that the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax is exactly that, a Hoax,” Trump said on Twitter.

But while Trump has claimed innocence in his dealings with Ukraine, not all Republican senators have disputed the facts that the president crossed the line.

The Senate voted 51-49 on Friday to reject calling witnesses before the Senate to testify about the president’s actions.

Only two Republican senators joined Democrats to seek witnesses and more documents, Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he voted to reject witnesses only after contemplating the gravity of prolonging a trial that could end with the president’s removal.

Alexander called Trump’s actions “inappropriate,” but the senator said punishment that would remove the president from the ballot in 2020 was denying the voters the opportunity to determine the outcome.

Schiff summed up that GOP argument this way: “He is guilty as sin, but can’t we just let the voters decide?”

“He has done it before, he will do it again,” Schiff added.

In the meantime, a possible compromise surfaced. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., proposed a bipartisan censure of Trump as a way for the Senate to move forward in condemning the president’s behavior.

During a Senate floor speech, Manchin said he is still undecided on how he would vote Wednesday. A Democrat in a state won overwhelmingly by Trump in 2016, Manchin is considered one of several swing lawmakers who could vote to acquit Trump.

Manchin said the question is not whether the president’s conduct warrants is removal from office, “but whether our nation is better served by his removal by the Senate now with impeachment or by the decision that voters will make in November.”

The president’s legal team also attacked the House process in its arguments against conviction.

Ken Starr, part of the Trump legal team and the former independent counsel whose investigation led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, said the House managers “didn’t follow the rules” and should not be rewarded.

What the House is asking the Senate to do in convicting and removing the president is constitutionally flawed, said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Democrats, though, said the president’s legal team sought to distract the public from Trump’s illegal behavior.

“For the past two weeks, the president’s defense team has spun bizarre legal arguments, conspiracy theories and flat-out lies,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

In December, the House voted largely along party lines to pass the resolutions of impeachment.

Nevada’s congressional delegation voted along party lines, with Democrats Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee voting to impeach and Republican Mark Amodei voting against the articles.

The Senate vote last week to reject witnesses also fell along mostly party lines. Nevada Democrats Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen voted to call witnesses and subpoena documents.

A Senate vote to convict and remove the president from office would take a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes. Trump’s strong support from GOP lawmakers in the Senate make his conviction and removal highly unlikely, as 20 Republicans would have to join all the chamber’s Democrats and two independents in voting to convict.

The Trump impeachment trial is only the third in history.

The Senate voted to acquit President Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Clinton in 1999.

The House Judiciary Committee voted to send articles of impeachment to the full House against President Richard Nixon. He resigned in 1974 before the House vote.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.