US President Donald Trump on Monday rejected the House of Representatives’ impeachment charges, describing the allegations that he had abused his power and obstructed Congress as an insult to the US Constitution that must be rejected.
“The Senate should speedily reject these deficient articles of impeachment and acquit the president,” an executive summary of the Republican president’s pre-trial brief said in Trump’s first comprehensive defense before the start of his Senate trial.
Trump will be the fourth American president out of the 45 Presidents to face the possibility of being impeached.
Trump is being charged with abusing the powers of his office by asking Ukraine to investigate a Democratic political rival, Joe Biden, and obstructing a congressional inquiry into his conduct.
The executive summary rejected the obstruction of Congress charge as frivolous and dangerous, saying the president exercised his legal rights by resisting congressional demands for information.
They also noted that the House of Democrats are guilty of conducting a rigged process and said they succeeded in proving that Trump had done nothing wrong.
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While the Republican-controlled Senate is highly unlikely to remove Trump from office, it is important for the Republican president to diminish the Democratic accusations as a partisan witch-hunt.
According to Trump’s legal team, the President was well within his constitutional authority to press Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in 2019 to investigate Biden and his son Hunter as part of what Trump says was an anti-corruption drive.
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