Trump calls for ‘outright dismissal’ of impeachment case without trial as Democrats prepare to hand case to Senate

Congressional rules do not allow the Senate to dismiss impeachment charges, although a Republican has tabled a motion to amend that law

Within hours of demanding the US Senate call house speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff as witnesses at his upcoming impeachment trial, President Donald Trump reversed course and suggested the Senate should dismiss the charges against him without hearing any evidence.

“Many believe that by the Senate giving credence to a trial based on the no evidence, no crime, read the transcripts, ‘no pressure’ Impeachment Hoax, rather than an outright dismissal, it gives the partisan Democrat Witch Hunt credibility that it otherwise does not have,” the US president tweeted Sunday afternoon, approximately three hours after writing that Ms Pelosi and Mr Schiff “must” testify at his trial, which could later this week.

Senate rules do not currently allow for the dismissal articles of impeachment prior to a trial, although some Republican senators have signed on to support a measure introduced by Missouri’s Josh Hawley, which would amend the law to allow such a move. However, it is unlikely anything of the sort could muster the 67 votes such a change would require.

Mr Trump became the third American president to face a Senate impeachment trial last month when the House of Representatives voted on 18 December to approve two articles of impeachment against him.

Some 230 members – 229 Democrats plus Michigan Republican-turned-independent Justin Amash – voted to charge Mr Trump with abusing his power over the withholding $391m (£300m) in military aid in a bid to force Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations into the family of political rival Joe Biden.

Mr Amash and 228 Democrats also voted to approve a second article of impeachment against Mr Trump for obstructing a congressional investigation into whether he had committed impeachable offences by withholding the aid.

Unlike previous presidential impeachments, not a single member of the president’s own party voted in favour of either charge. Mr Trump and his allies have seized on this fact to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the entire proceedings, although most reputable legal scholars have dismissed such arguments as being without merit.

Ms Pelosi has so far stalled on appointing the “managers” who will transmit the impeachment articles to the Senate and prosecute Mr Trump at his trial.

Shortly after the House voted to approve both articles, the California Democrat told reporters she and her leadership team would wait to “see what they are going to do on the Senate side”. She pointed to statements made during a TV appearance by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, in which the Kentucky Republican said he would be coordinating the conduct of Mr Trump’s trial with the White House counsel’s office.

Ms Pelosi and Mr McConnell have been locked in a stalemate since then over the question of whether the Senate will allow witnesses - including former Trump national security adviser John Bolton - to testify.

Mr Bolton, whose lawyers have previously alluded to his possession of information relevant to the charges against the president, said in a statement last week that he would testify if the Senate chooses to subpoena him as a witness.

But the weeks-long deadlock appeared to break on Friday, with Ms Pelosi announcing the House would vote on a resolution to appoint managers and transmit the articles to the Senate as early as Wednesday.