- Impeachment, accusations concluded in the Senate. Schiff: remove Trump or risk for democracy
- The impeachment process in the Senate has started. Stop Republicans to new evidence. Dem: "It's cover-up"
- Republicans set the rules for impeachment and dems accuse: they want to rig the process
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January 26, 2020American President, Donald Trump, "has done nothing wrong." The Democrats' accusations of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power "are not justified," says Trump's defense of the Senate impeachment process."When you hear the facts, you will see that the president has done absolutely nothing wrong," said Pat Cipollone, the White House lawyer, who opened the extraordinary two-hour session that was held on Saturday and will continue on Monday . "Any honest person who attended the Senate trial today can see how unfairly I was treated," tweeted Trump shortly after.
The attorney said the allegations of abuse of power and obstruction in Congress made by Democrats in the House of Representatives - where the opposition holds the majority - lack justification. Cipollone accused Democrats of essentially asking the Senate to "undo the results of the last 2016 presidential election, which gave Trump victory."
Democrats "are here to perpetrate the biggest interference in an election in history," he insisted. "We can't accept it," he added, and promised to carry out the second part of this historic process "efficiently and quickly" so that all Americans can go to the November 3 election.
Meanwhile, the Democrats in the Senate's speech ended with a request: give America a fair trial.
Audio and video released by the press
The ABC publishes a phone call in which what appears to be the president's voice turns to the then deputy chief of staff of the White House ordering to dismiss the diplomat, then actually removed, Marie Yovanovitch, who was among the witnesses in the impeachment process.
And after the stolen audio revealed by the ABC, the video of the private dinner of April 2018 also appears, during which Donald Trump (who is not seen) speaks with Lev Parnas, partner of the president's personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, by ordering him to get rid of the then US ambassador to Ukraine. It was released by CBS, which obtained it from Parnas' lawyer, Joseph Bondi.
The images, shot in secret, last 1 hour and 23 minutes, and around 40 minutes Trump is heard, never filmed, saying "Get rid of her!", "Get it out of the way".
The recording contradicts the president's statements that he did not know the partners of Giuliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, key figures in the investigations launched last year on charges of hidden campaign funding.
The fourth senator
While Democrats continue to pressure to listen to witnesses and bring more evidence to consider during the impeachment process, Republican Senator Mitt Romney, departing from his party's official position, said that "most likely" he will stand in favor of the convocation of witnesses in the ongoing trial in the Senate.
The ex-White House candidate, with a recent streak of strong contrasts with Trump, said he will only decide when lawyers defending the president finish explaining their arguments by Tuesday.
In order to introduce witnesses and new evidence into the trial, the vote of at least four Republican senators is needed. The other three, in addition to Romney, could be the moderates Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Cory Gardner