Trump impeachment lawyers wrap up president's defence with question of witnesses hanging over Senate

Embattled president could deliver State of Union address with fate in Senate still a mystery

Donald Trump’s legal team wrapped up their defence of the president in the Senate’s impeachment trial with the question of whether the chamber will seek new witnesses hanging over the proceeding.

The lawyers for Mr Trump did not use over 13 hours of their possible 24 hours of case-making. Nor did they try to deny many of House Democrats’ accusations about his actions towards Ukraine. They used some testimony during the house’s impeachment investigation, usually by showing video clips, but did not deny that Mr Trump wanted the new government in Ukraine to look into US Democrats. The bulk of the defence team’s case was Mr Trump did nothing wrong, and even if he did, those offences fail to clear the constitution’s bar of impeachment.

Sources bounced around theories for what happens now Mr Trump’s lawyers have wrapped their case.

Several observers predicted a court battle is ahead if a handful of GOP senators vote to call witnesses – a legal fight that would only follow a possible delay while the president’s team and House Democrats negotiate which witness or witnesses each side would call. Others predicted the trial likely will feature witnesses, but could wrap up next week. And a few predicted it all could be over by Saturday, which would mean all Democrats would fail to bring four Republicans to their side in a vote on whether to call witnesses.

The uncertainty means Mr Trump on Tuesday night could either stand in the house chamber for his State of the Union address as the third sitting US chief executive to be impeached by the house but acquitted by the upper chamber. Or he might stand face-to-face with House Democrats without his fate known – though it remains highly unlikely that 20 Senate Republicans would vote for Mr Trump’s conviction.

Connecticut Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal, during an afternoon break, told reporters what he heard earlier Tuesday was a “fact-free presentation”. It might not matter, however. Mr Blumenthal said Republicans “might have the votes right now” to block any witnesses. Senate Democrats want more than just former national security adviser John Bolton to testify, they also want acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and other administration officials to appear during the trial. Mr Trump has said allowing those officials to testify would create a “national security problem” and he would block their participation by invoking executive privilege.

Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman Mark Warner of Virginia told reporters after the president’s team rested that Mr Bolton should be called because he is a “first-hand witness” to Mr Trump’s actions and words.

A source on the president’s legal team said they are prepared for any outcome, including the Senate voting to call witnesses. The same source said Trump’s defence team feels ready to address “any questions”.

“We’ll be prepared for any eventuality,” the source said, declining to say whether the White House National Security Council, which has conducted a routine security review of the Bolton book, had briefed the president’s legal team on its contents.

Mr Trump’s lawyers began their closing arguments by attacking many of the premises House Democrats used to build their impeachment articles.

Patrick Philbin, deputy White House counsel, told senators House Democrats are asking them to “get inside the president’s head”. He walked the lawmaker-jurists through a meaty legal analysis and concluded House Democrats’ case fails to show what Mr Trump and his surrogates did with Ukraine amounted to a “recognisable wrong to a reasonable person”.

The White House’s No.2 lawyer called that an “inherit flaw” in the House Democratic managers’ “definition of abuse of power”, and called their prosecution too “malleable” because it lacks a “recognisable” definition of “abuse of power.”

“How do we tell under house managers’ standard what is an illicit motive? How do we get inside the president’s head?” he said, appearing to try planting a seed of doubt in any Republican senators’ minds who might have been jolted by details of John Bolton’s new book. The New York Times reported Sunday night that a manuscript of that tell-all will state the former White House national security adviser heard the president say he wanted to keep a $391m military aid package for Ukraine frozen unless its government announced investigations of top US Democrats, including the Bidens.

“They say talking about perfectly lawful actions. They say, ‘It’s what’s in the president’s head’,” Mr Philbin said, driving home his point that House Democrats’ failed to make a case about Mr Trump’s true motives.

Jay Sekulow, another Trump lawyer who has a flare for the dramatic, warned the senators of “danger, danger, danger” because “to lower the bar of impeachment base on these articles of impeachment would impact the functioning of our constitutional republic ... for generations.”

He contended the president did not break any laws, so he cannot be impeached – a line of thinking with which some legal scholars and Democratic lawmakers strongly disagree. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that if Mr Trump “is allowed to do absolute obstruction on everything and not be held accountable, he’ll do it again and again.” Mr Schumer criticised the president’s lawyers for, in his view, being unable to “argue the facts,” and he again said the president’s legal team made a case for witnesses to be called.

Part of the team’s closing argument was to sound alarms for any reluctant GOP senators that they would be hurting themselves politically if they voted with Democrats.

“You are being asked to remove a duly elected president of the United States, and you’re being asked to do it in an election year,” he said.

He even offered the senators who are still Democratic presidential candidates and were sitting in the chamber a chance to get back on the campaign trail with Monday night’s Iowa caucuses looming.

“There are some of you in this chamber right now who would rather be someplace else ... because you’re running for the nomination of your party,” Mr Sekulow said, promising the Trump team intended to conclude their case quickly.