US Senate returns amid standoff over impeachment trial
WASHINGTON, United States — US lawmakers return to Washington Friday with President Donald Trump's upcoming impeachment trial looming over the first Senate session of 2020, but congressional leaders
As Congress braces for a frenetic January, newly uncovered evidence could bolster Democrats' demands for testimony from key witnesses with firsthand knowledge of Trump's Ukraine pressure scheme at the heart of the impeachment scandal.
A series of emails published Thursday signal that the order to maintain a freeze on military aid to Ukraine came directly from
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has so far refused to transmit the two articles of impeachment against Trump
Senate Democrats want to hear from key witnesses who refused to testify during the House
Republicans have balked, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitting last month that he was working in "total coordination" with the White House on how to conduct the trial.
Trump stands accused of leveraging a highly sought White House meeting and $391 in military aid to Ukraine, which Kiev desperately needed to deter Russian aggression, in exchange for investigations into Democrats including his possible 2020 election rival Joe Biden.
The White House has rejected that narrative.
But on the eve of the Senate re-convening, unredacted emails published by a national security site show that a White House official told the Pentagon that the order to hold the Ukraine aid came from the president himself.
According to Just Security, an August 30 email sent by
"Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold," Duffey wrote in the email.
The unredacted message was one of several not turned over to House investigators conducting the impeachment inquiry, Just Security reported.
On Thursday, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Duffey's email "further implicates" Trump and compromises McConnell's push to have a trial without documents and witnesses as sought by Democrats.
Schumer said it was imperative that Duffey and other key figures testify, including Secretary of
Pelosi also weighed in. "Trump engaged in unprecedented, total obstruction of Congress, hiding these emails, all other documents, and his top aides from the American people," she tweeted.
"Why won't Trump & McConnell allow a fair trial?"
Trump on Thursday repeated his claim that the impeachment effort was a "partisan witch hunt" that has fuelled national divisions.
Donald Trump, now former US president, has been impeached a second time.
Donald Trump's former chief of staff says he is no longer willing to cooperate with the probe into January's assault on the US Capitol, prompting investigators to threaten him with criminal prosecution.
Mark Meadows, who failed to appear before the congressional panel last month, is seen as a key witness to Trump's role in efforts to overturn the election by undemocratic means.
Having initially snubbed a subpoena to testify before the House of Representatives committee, Meadows later reached an agreement on sharing information with lawmakers — before reversing course again.
"Now actions by the select committee have made such an appearance untenable," Meadows' attorney, George Terwilliger, says in a new letter to the committee circulated among US media. — AFP
The US Senate is expected to deliver a verdict in Donald Trump's impeachment trial this weekend after his lawyers argued that the former president bears no responsibility for an attack by supporters on Congress after he failed to win reelection.
Defense lawyers wrapped up their presentation in just three hours, accusing Democrats of persecuting Trump.
This followed two days of evidence from Democratic impeachment managers, centered around harrowing video footage of the mob assault against the Capitol on January 6. — AFP
The US Senate votes to proceed with the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump, rejecting defense arguments that it was unconstitutional.
Defense lawyers had argued that Trump should not face a trial in the Senate for inciting insurrection because he was no longer president.
But the Senate voted 56-44 to proceed with the trial, with six Republicans joining Democratic lawmakers. — AFP
The Senate impeachment trial of former US president Donald Trump will "tear this country apart," one of his defense lawyers says Tuesday.
"This trial will tear this country apart," David Schoen says on the opening day of Trump's trial for inciting the January 6 storming of the US Capitol by his supporters.
Schoen says the trial will leave the United States "far more divided and our standing around the world will be badly broken." — AFP
Former US president Donald Trump announced Sunday that he had hired two new lawyers to head his defense team for his historic second impeachment trial.
Trump's announcement came the day after US media reported that several of his impeachment lawyers had left his team, a little more than a week shy of his trial before the US Senate.
Trump said in a statement that "highly respected trial lawyers" David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr would lead his legal efforts.
Castor has focused on criminal law throughout his career, while Schoen specializes in "civil rights litigation in Alabama and federal criminal defense work, including white collar and other complex cases, in New York."
Trump, who left office January 20, faces trial on a charge that he incited the mob that stormed the US Capitol building in an effort to block his election loss to President Joe Biden. — AFP
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