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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Schumer: 'We're not trading' evidence with GOP

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Schumer: 'We're not trading' evidence with GOP
Schumer: 'We're not trading' evidence with GOP

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer after day two of President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial said there are no "discussions" being had with Republicans over potential evidence or witnesses.

Democrats on Thursday pressed their case at U.S. President Donald Trump's Senate trial for removing him from office by using the words of his own allies against him to make the point that his actions constituted impeachment offenses, but his fellow Republicans showed no signs of turning against him.

The Democratic House of Representatives lawmakers serving as prosecutors in the trial presented the second of their three days of opening arguments as they appealed to senators to convict him on two charges - abuse of power and obstruction of Congress - passed by the House last month.

The U.S. Constitution sets out the impeachment process for removing a president who commits "high crimes and misdemeanors." Trump's legal team has argued that the House charges were invalid because impeachable offenses must represent a specific violation of criminal law.

Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler played a video clip of one of Trump's most prominent defenders, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, arguing during the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton that presidents could be impeached even if the conduct in question was not a statutory criminal violation.

Nadler also played a 1998 video clip of Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump's legal team, recognizing abuse of power as impeachable, and cited a memo written by Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, that made the same point.

Trump's legal team has stated that abuse of power is a "made-up theory" for an impeachable offense "that would permanently weaken the presidency by effectively permitting impeachments based merely on policy disagreements."

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