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Trumps Impeachment Trial: Live Updates on Saturday as Trumps Team Presents Case

The Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump resumed at 10 a.m. on Jan. 25.

The Hous..

The Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump resumed at 10 a.m. on Jan. 25.

The House impeachment managers presented the case for impeachment over the last several days. Trumps legal team is now taking their turn.

12:10 p.m. EST—Senate Adjourned Until Monday

Trumps defense team concluded todays opening arguments.

The Senate impeachment trial was adjourned until 1 p.m. Monday.

12 p.m. EST—House Subpoenas Were Invalid: Lawyer

Subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives during the impeachment inquiry werent legally valid because the full House didnt vote to approve the inquiry, a lawyer for President Donald Trump told senators on Jan. 25.

Patrick Philbin, deputy counsel, said that Supreme Court precedent explains that a congressional committee gets its authority by a resolution from its parent body.

“The Constitution assigns the sole power of impeachment to the House of Representatives—to the House, not to any member, not to a subcommittee. And that authority can be delegated to a committee to use only by a vote in the House,” Philbin said.

“Here, there was no vote to authorize a committee to exercise the power of impeachment.”

Because there was no standing authority giving the House Intelligence Committee authority, subpoenas issued by the committee were “invalid,” Philbin said.

“And that is what the Trump administration pointed out specifically to the House. That was the reason for not responding to them.”

There were full House votes in the previous presidential impeachment inquiries, Philbin said.

Epoch Times Photo
Epoch Times Photo
Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky in a file photograph. (Charles Platiau/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

11:45 a.m. EST—Corruption Didnt Go Away With Zelenskys Election: Sekulow

Corruption in Ukraine didnt disappear with the election of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said on Saturday.

“Were acting as if there were a magic wand. That there was new elections, and everything was now fine,” Sekulow said.

He quoted Tim Morrison, a National Security Council official who said he was “concerned about whether [Zelensky] would be a genuine reformer and whether he would genuinely try to root out corruption.” He also quoted Dr. Fiona Hill, a former council official who said “eliminating corruption in Ukraine was one of the, if not the central goals, of a foreign policy.”

“Does anybody think that one election of one president that ran on a reform platform, who finally gets a majority in their legislative body, that corruption in Ukraine just evaporates?” Sekulow wondered.

“You cant look at these issues in a vacuum.” Nearly every witness in the House impeachment inquiry agreed that corruption in Ukraine was an issue, he said.

House impeachment managers this week focused on Ukraine in pushing for the removal of Trump from office.

House manager Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said that a Department of Defense review last year concluded Ukraine made sufficient progress in meeting anti-corruption goals in order to receive the congressionally approved funds that Trump put on hold to look into corruption in the country.

Epoch Times Photo
Epoch Times Photo
President Donald Trumps lawyer Jay Sekulow speaks during impeachment proceedings against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 25, 2020. (Senate Television via Getty Images)

11:15 a.m. EST—Trump Lawyer: Zelensky Said There Was No Pressure

Top Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, disputed accounts that they felt pressured to open investigations into former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Bidens son, a lawyer for the president noted on Saturday.

Kurt Volker, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, met with Zelensky the day after the July 25, 2019, phone call. Ukraine never brought up a hold on military aid or a “quid pro quo,” Volker testified to the House during the impeachment inquiry. Trumps team played the clip during the impeachment trial.

“The best evidence that there was no pressure or quid pro quo is the statements of the Ukrainians themselves. The fact that President Zelensky himself felt no pressure on the call and did not perceive there to be any connection between security assistance and investigations would, in any ordinary case, in any court, be totally fatal to the prosecution,” Mike Purpura, deputy counsel to Trump, told lawmakers.

He was referring to allegations that Trump pressed Ukraine to “look into” allegations of corruption surrounding Ukraine, as well as the location of a computer server, in exchange for releasing a hold on aid Congress approved for the country.

House impeachment managers know Ukrainian leaders said there wasnt any pressure but insist Zelensky and others actually did feel pressure, Purpura said.

“They tell you that the Ukrainians must have felt pressure, regardless of what they said. They try to overcome the devastating evidence against them by, apparently, claiming to be mind readers,” Purpura said.

House impeachment managers had another interpretation of Trumps call with Zelensky. They say Trumps response when his counterpart brought up buying more Javelin missiles from the United States—Trump said “I would love you to do us a favor though” before asking Zelensky “to find out what happened” with CrowdStrike, a company hired to investigate a Democratic National Committee server breach—was evidence of the “quid pro quo” allegation.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) brought up remarks by acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney made during an October 2019 press conference. Asked if it was a “quid pro quo,” Mulvaney responded, “We do that all the time with foreign policy.”

“We were holding up money at the same time for the Northern Triangle countries so that they would change their policies on immigration,” he added.

Mulvaney later issued a statement claiming media outlets misconstrued his remarks. “Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election,” he said.

Crow played Mulvaney making the comments at the press conference, telling lawmakers: “Now, remember, at the time he made these statements, Mulvaney was both head of OMB [Office of Management and Budget] and the acting chief of staff at the White House. He knew about all of the legal concerns. He also knew about the presidents so-called drug deal, as Ambassador Bolton called it.”

“He knew exactly what was going on in the oval office and how OMB implemented the presidents illegal order to withhold the aid. Mulvaney confirmed why the president ordered the hold,” Crow said. “It was not to develop further policy to counter Russian aggression, it was not to convince Ukrainians to implement additional anti-corruption reforms, and it was not to pressure our allies to give more to Ukraine.”

zelensky speaks about phone call
zelensky speaks about phone call
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hold a meeting in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

10:15 a.m. EST—Trumps Team Draws Attention to Schiff Fabrication

Trumps defense team played a clip showing House Intelligence Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) fabricating a portion of the transcript of the presidents 2019 phone call with Ukraines president.

Schiff made the fabrication during a House hearing last year.

“Thats fake. Thats not the real call. Thats not the evidence here. Thats not the transcript,” Mike Purpura, a counsel to Trump, told lawmakers on the Senate floor.

“And we can shrug it off, and say we were making light, or a joke. But that was in a hearing in the United States House of Representatives discussing the removal of the president of the United States from office. There are very few things, if any, that can be as grave and as serious. Lets stick with the evidence.”

10:15 a.m. EST—Cipollone Tells Senate to Let Voters Decide

White House counsel Pat Cipollone said Saturday morning that senators should let voters decide whether to remove Trump from office in the November election.

“Theyre asking you to something very, very consequential, and I would submit to you … very, very dangerous,” he said on the Senate floor in Washington.

“Theyre asking you not only to overturn the results of the last election, but theyre asking you to remove President Trump from the ballot in an election thats occurring in approximately nine months. Theyre asking you to tear up all of the ballots across this country, on your own initiative, take that decision away from the American people.”

Removing Trump through impeachment “would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you,” he added.

“The American people decide elections. They have one coming up, in nine months.”

White House counsel Pat Cipollone speaks
White House counsel Pat Cipollone speaks
White House counsel Pat Cipollone speaks during impeaRead More – Source
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