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Donald Trump's lawyers attempted to lash out at the explosive revelations of John Bolton, a former White House adviser, who weakened the defense of the US president in his impeachment trial in the Senate.

They also launched into the attack against former Vice President Joe Biden, stating that Trump's request to Kiev to investigate his possible rival in the November 3 presidential election was motivated by suspicions of corruption.

Republican senators face renewed pressure to agree to receive former security adviser John Bolton as a witness in the trial against Trump following the revelations, which could mean a fulminating test against the president.

According to The New York Times , in a draft of his book, Bolton wrote that Trump told him that military aid to Ukraine was subject to Kiev investigating Biden.

The claim that Trump withheld aid to benefit in the presidential race was at the center of the indictment of the House of Representatives - controlled by the Democrats - against the president for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

"The abuse of power is a political weapon and should be used against political opponents and that people decide," said Alan Dershowitz, one of Trump's lawyers.

The constitutionalist expert went beyond the main argument of the White House, according to which there was no pressure on Kiev or "quid pro quo", a strategy weakened by Bolton's revelations.

"The quid pro quo alone is not a basis for abuse of power, it is part of the foreign policy conducted by the presidents since the beginning of time," he said.

"Nothing in Bolton's revelations, even if they are true, would amount to the level of abuse of power or an offense that deserves an impeachment," he said.

In a new excerpt from his future book unveiled on Monday by the New York Times, Bolton also reports having shared with Justice Secretary Bill Barr his concern that Trump was granting favors to authoritarian leaders.

"Sell a book"

Bolton's revelations appeared to have moved the lines within the Republican majority in the Senate, whose 53 lawmakers have so far refused to admit witnesses at the trial, as the Democrats request.

At least three moderates Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski suggested they could favor a testimony from Bolton in a vote, which could possibly take place at the end of this week.

Although 67 votes are needed to dismiss Trump , only a simple majority is required - which would imply at least four Republican votes - to give a green light to the testimony of Bolton and other senior officials.

Citing Bolton's unpublished manuscript, the Times said the president told his then adviser in August that he wanted to keep frozen $ 391 million in aid to Ukraine until Kiev helped him with an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter, who integrated the directory of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that aid to Ukraine was linked to the investigations of Democrats, including the Biden. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public departure," Trump tweeted Monday. " If John Bolton said this, it was just to sell a book ."

Trump's lawyers also tried to prove the president acted in his right worried about a possible "corruption" of the Biden in Ukraine.

Florida's former attorney general, Pam Bondi, revealed that Hunter Biden earned "millions" of dollars in Burisma while his father, vice president of Barack Obama, was conducting US foreign policy in that country.

Starr defends Trump

Allegations of the president's defense began on Monday with a review by Ken Starr, who led the impeachment investigation against Bill Clinton in 1998, about past impeachment proceedings.

Starr argued that this effort to expel Trump from the White House was unconstitutional because, unlike the cases of Presidents Richard Nixon and Clinton, prosecution articles do not represent a real crime.

He added that in both the Nixon and Clinton cases there was a bipartisan agreement between Republicans and Democrats to dismiss the president. Clinton was acquitted and Nixon resigned from the presidency in 1974 before being put on trial.

"The impeachment must be bipartisan by nature," he argued, and paraphrased the White House lawyers when they said it is up to the voters, not Congress, to decide in the November elections whether or not to continue in the government.

If the Senate finally sends a subpoena to Bolton to testify, it is likely that the White House will be shielded in executive privileges to try to send the matter to a court and prevent it from presenting its testimony. Bolton, who was fired in September after 17 months as a National Security advisor, said he was ready to testify before the Senate.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Ukraine
  • Senate
  • Donald Trump
  • Barack Obama
  • Joe biden

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