Election Cheating Can Be in the Public Interest, Team Trump Argues

“The short answer is no,” Schiff said.

The question prompted bald laughter from Republican Senators Tim Scott of South Carolina and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Two other Republicans, Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, were also spotted shaking their heads.

Schiff said Bolton’s role goes to the heart of Trump’s “egregious misconduct. In an argument undercutting Philbin’s assertions on mixed motives, Schiff said even if it was a causal factor involved to freeze aid, that alone would be enough to convict.

At the inquiry's start, House Democrats likened their probe to a criminal grand jury investigation, requiring secrecy at first before issuing their indictment in the form of the articles of impeachment.

Republicans have consistently rejected that analogy, demanding all hearings in the House be open to the public and Trump’s defense attorneys. Trump loyalists also have insisted that a Senate trial is no place for additional witnesses, despite the Constitution’s clear guidance: “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.”

On Wednesday, however, Team Trump played a legal game of musical chairs, accepting the premise that a Senate trial has a higher standard than a House grand jury.

“The Constitution speaks of a conviction upon being convicted in the Senate,” Philbin said. “It speaks of all crimes being tried by jury, except in cases of impeachment, again suggesting notions of the criminal law and as we pointed out in our trial memorandum, all these textual references make it clear that the standards of criminal law should apply in the trial.”

House Manager Val Demings tackled a question from Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, who asked if there was any harm in withholding Ukraine's military aid. Citing a figure from the United Nations, Demings noted that 15,000 Ukrainian died in conflicts with neighboring Russia.

The aid restriction undercut Ukraine’s ability to negotiate with Russia now and in the future, she said.

“Contrary to what the White House counsel has said or claimed that there was no harm, no foul, that the aid eventually got there,” Demings said. “We promised Ukraine in 2014 that if they gave up their nuclear arsenal, that we would be there for them and that we would defend them and that we would fight along beside them.”

Senator Tom Carper, D-Del., posed a question highlighting the fact that deposing witnesses took merely a day during the impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton and that Chief Justice Roberts would have the authority to review new claims without delay.

Opponents of calling additional witnesses have suggested that hearing new testimony would lengthen the trial.

But House impeachment manager Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., dismissed the notion, saying that Trump’s impeachment trial is the only one in American history lacking witnesses.

In fact, 37 of the 40 witnesses who testified during former President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial were called after it began, Jeffries said.

“A trial involves witnesses. A trial involves documents. A trial involves evidence. That is not a new phenomenon for this distinguished body and the Senate and its history had 15 different impeachment trials,” Jeffries said. “In every single trial there were witnesses.”

Chief Justice Roberts, rarely seen outside of the Supreme Court, has settled into his role as presiding officer and was seen taking notes as Wednesday unfolded.

Unlike other days, where Roberts’ desk was littered with small slips of paper, the question-and-answer session prompted the chief justice to bust out a full sized legal notepad for the first time.

House manager Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., fielded a joint question from Senators Dianne Feinstein of California, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Tom Udall of New Mexico and others regarding the precedent for blanket immunity sought by the White House.

Trump’s obstruction was “categorical and indiscriminate,” and its purpose was crystal clear, she said.

“It was to prevent Congress from doing its duty to hold the president accountable,” Lofgren said. “He didn’t assert executive privilege… he just didn’t like what we were doing.”

The president may be commander-in-chief, Lofgren argued, but that does not give him authority to decide how the trial plays out.

“The House is the sole arbiter over rules of impeachment,” she said.

A question from Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri pressed House managers to address if there was any relation between the person who filed the whistleblower complaint – the genesis of Trump’s impeachment – and Joe Biden.

Schiff displayed multiple remarks from Republican senators who previously defended whistleblower protections, like Romney of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Schiff was often attacked by Republicans during the House impeachment inquiry as having insider knowledge about the whistleblower’s name.

He reiterated Wednesday he and his staff had no information on the whistleblower’s identity.

In short, he said, the conspiracy theory was baseless.

“The whistleblower did exactly what they should,” Schiff said. “Except to the president. That’s unforgivable because the whistleblower exposed the wrongdoing of the president. And in the president’s view, that makes him or her a traitor or a spy.”

As the night wore on, defense attorney Dershowitz defended his decision in opening arguments this week to flip-flop on his former position and now say that a technical crime is required to impeach.

During Clinton’s impeachment, Dershowitz argued heartily to the contrary.

Saying the Framers didn’t want to adopt the term “maladministration” because it was too vague, Dershowitz asserted maladministration was a synonym for abuse of power.

“Saying maladministration is a synonym for abuse of power? Almost no scholar accepts this,” Chuck Schumer said at a press conference during a recess.

The point was driven home with a follow-up question fielded by impeachment manager Jerry Nadler: Has definition of high crimes and misdemeanors changed over the past 22 years?

“Every impeachment in American history has been for abuse of power in one form or another,” Nadler said before adding that crimes and the impeachment are two different things.

Impeachments are not punishments for crimes, he argued, and impeachments are used against presidents who threaten liberty or the separation of powers.

“That is why punishment upon conviction of impeachment only goes to removal of office,” Nadler emphasized. “You can’t put him in jail. You can’t fine him. An impeachable offense need not be a crime. It’s understood that way through American history.”

Read the Top 8

Sign up for the Top 8, a roundup of the day's top stories delivered directly to your inbox Monday through Friday.

Email *

Submit