Trump’s legal team wraps up opening arguments, rejects Bolton allegations

US President Donald Trump's legal team has wrapped up three days of arguments in his Senate impeachment trial, calling the charges against the Republican president unfounded and politically motivated.

The third day of opening arguments by Trump’s lawyers ended on Tuesday amid uncertainty over the question of whether to call witnesses in his impeachment trial.

Trump’s lawyers sought to minimize the explosive allegations made recently by former national security adviser John Bolton that Trump told him he was withholding military aid to Ukraine until Kiev agreed to investigate former US Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

“You cannot impeach a president on an unsourced allegation,” Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow told the Senate.

Saying “it is time for this to end,” Trump’s defense team accused Democrats of trying to interfere with the president’s November re-election bid.

“Overturning past elections and massively interfering with the upcoming one would cause serious and lasting damage to the people of the United States and to our great country. The Senate cannot allow this to happen,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told the Senate.

Trump denies telling Bolton Ukraine aid was tied to investigations

President Trump has denied he told former national security adviser John Bolton that releasing security aid for Ukraine was dependent on Kiev investigating his political rivals.

Bolton’s unpublished book manuscript directly contradicts Trump’s account of events. Bolton wrote that the president told him he wanted to freeze $391 million in security aid to Ukraine until Kiev pursued investigations into Democrats, including Biden.

Meanwhile, Trump's attorney Alan Dershowitz said Monday night that even if the Bolton revelations were true, they still did not mean Trump abused his power as president.

"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense.” Dershowitz said. “You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using words like quid pro quo and personal benefit."

The former Harvard Law School professor also argued that a president cannot be impeached for what he described as vague charges of "abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress," asserting that the Constitution required a specific crime or crime-like behavior.

Elaborating on Dershowitz's argument on Tuesday, White House deputy counsel Patrick Philbin described as “malleable” the "abuse of power" charge.

Philbin said that the charge is based on finding a “subjective motive,” in lieu of “standards, or offenses.”

“How do we tell under the House managers' standard what an illicit motive is?” Philbin said. “How are we supposed to get the proof inside the president's head?"

“They want to make it impeachable if it's just the wrong idea inside the president's head,” Philbin added.

Meanwhile, Trump, who was speaking at a “Keep America Great” rally at the Wildwoods Convention Center in Wildwood, New Jersey on Tuesday, slammed Democratic lawmakers over his impeachment trial.

He said that Democrats "are obsessed with demented hoaxes, crazy witch hunts and deranged partisan crusades." 

He also called them "crazy," saying they "have never been more extreme than they are right now." 

Republican senators met privately later on Tuesday to discuss calling witnesses including Bolton, but said as they emerged that there was no resolution on the matter. Four Republicans would need to vote for witnesses, along with all 47 Democrats and independents.

The next phase of the trial gets underway on Wednesday when senators will begin two days of questions to the lawyers representing Trump and to the seven House of Representatives Democrats who have served as prosecutors.

The Democratic-led House on December 18 impeached Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress arising from his request that Ukraine investigate the Bidens, setting the stage for the Senate trial to determine if he should be removed from office.

While the Republican-controlled Senate is highly unlikely to remove Trump from office, it is important for him to try to blunt the Democratic accusations to limit political damage to his bid for a second term.

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