• USA: Democrats formally accuse Donald Trump of "endangering national security" in the 'Ukrainegate'

The political trial of Donald Trump for the 'Ukrainegate' will begin on Tuesday of next week. After a month of procrastination, the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi ("the crazy Nancy", according to Trump) has surrendered to the evidence on Wednesday and has admitted that the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, is not going to agree on the final part of the process , which is celebrated in that chamber. Or, at least, he won't agree with the Democrats. Because McConnell has already stated that, when deciding how the trial is going to be, "everything you do will be in coordination with the White House lawyer."

Given that McConnell is going to decide how the procedure of the political trial will be, it is evident that this will be arranged in the most favorable way to achieve not only the exoneration of Donald Trump - something guaranteed - but also that the whole process has the lowest possible political cost for the president . It is a difference in relation to other similar processes. In 1999, when Bill Clinton was subjected to the same process in the Senate, the Republican majority and the Democratic minority agreed on the details.

Precisely with the aim of forcing McConnell to change position, Pelosi has taken almost a month to send what is known as "the articles of impeachment" to the Senate . It has been a kind of duel between two of the most experienced and unforgiving politicians in the US. But there has entered another character who, although experienced, is not implacable (except when it comes to anger at his subordinates), the leader of the Senate Democratic minority, Chuck Schumer.

If Pelosi and McConnell more or less control their benches, Schumer cannot with his own. And that is how, little by little, several Democratic senators facing a complicated re-election in November have begun to press for the political trial to begin and the Republicans stop accusing them of unnecessarily lengthening the process. In the last week, the malaise has spread to the House of Representatives. And Pelosi has ended up giving in.

So the president of the Chamber has announced who will be the seven legislators who will act as prosecutors (officially "managers", that is, "managers") at the trial. The selection has had no surprises. There will be the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff ("shit," according to Trump), and the Justice Committee, Jerry Nadler, and five other representatives.

And, three and a half hours later, the House of Representatives has decided to send what is called "articles of impeachment" to the Senate, that is, something like the text of the president's imputation to the political trial. The vote was, as expected, partisan. All Democrats, except one, supported him. And all Republicans rejected him. Michigan representative Justin Amash, who broke up with the Republican Party in the summer because of his differences with Trump, also voted to send the articles.

Special session in the Senate

Tomorrow, the Senate will hold a special session in which some procedural issues will be approved, including some remodeling of the camera to allow the presence of more people and television cameras than usual and the ban on senators from introducing electronic devices such as mobile phones and tablets, something that worries some legislators, who fear that this measure will force them to pay attention to the trial of which they will be sworn. It is likely that the press, although present at the trial, is not authorized to access senators. Finally, legislators will swear as jurors, and the president of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, as president .

There is no session on Friday, and Monday is a holiday, so the trial will begin on Tuesday , with the exposition of the charges against Trump by the seven representatives appointed on Wednesday. Then, the president's lawyers will have the floor, after which the senators, transformed into jurors, will be able to submit written requests to Roberts, who will decide on the matter.

That is one of the most controversial points of the legal trial, because it affects the evidence against Trump and the witnesses. Republicans do not want witnesses. And the Democrats want the former National Security adviser, John Bolton, who has maintained a position of calculated ambiguity, although in recent weeks he has been more receptive to the idea of ​​testifying. Bolton's words could be the only surprise in a trial in which Trump's exoneration is taken for granted.

However, the White House is opposed to the former National Security adviser declaring, and has threatened to invoke the principle of "executive privilege , " which states that high-level talks with the president are secret, especially in matters of National security. Since the case affects the suspension of the delivery of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine for that country to defend its territorial integrity from the pro-Russian militias, that argument could be applied to block the appearance of Bolton.

But some Republican senators, such as Rand Paul, from Kentucky, want the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, to testify . The idea is based on the fact that this whole crisis is due to the fact that Trump canceled the shipment of the missiles until Ukraine announced an investigation of Hunter Biden, who served as a member of the board of directors of the Ukrainian gas giant Burisma. That is something that the Democrats oppose, because it would damage the electoral possibilities of Biden, who today is the favorite in the polls to be a candidate for the presidency in the 2020 elections.

In fact, this whole process overlaps the Iowa Democratic primary. And one of the possible beneficiaries of the political trial calendar is Biden , since two of his most important rivals, leftists Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are going to be "trapped" "in the Senate unable to campaign in Iowa, which votes on February 3 and perhaps even in New Hampshire, which celebrates its primary on 10.

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