Trump’s legal team, led by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump personal lawyer Jay Sekulow, challenged the House impeachment on both procedural and constitutional grounds. The filing from the House managers, the seven Democrats tasked with proving the House case to the Senate, is effectively the prosecution’s opening brief of the trial. The House managers’ filing gathers the public testimony and closed-door depositions of more than a dozen current and former federal officials. It was not up to Trump to decide whether to release the military aid to Ukraine, which had been approved by Congress, the House managers argue. The previous two presidential impeachment trials, of President Clinton in 1999 and President Andrew Johnson in 1868, resulted in acquittals.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 19, 2020 01:52 UTC