WASHINGTON • House impeachment managers launched their case for removing Mr Donald Trump from office by depicting him as a president who is vindictive, untruthful, unbound by the law and, above all, willing to abuse his power at the expense of US national security.
Democrats were yesterday set to resume those arguments in the Senate trial of President Trump by focusing on the impeachment article charging him with abuse of power while working to persuade moderate Republicans that they should subpoena witnesses, like former national security adviser John Bolton.
Mr Trump will get his turn, likely from tomorrow, when his lawyers are expected to mount a vigorous defence against a probe they have labelled as rushed and biased.
Over more than nine hours on Wednesday, House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff and the other managers took the Senate through a step-by-step chronology aimed at portraying a president who had sought to pressure Ukraine into investigating his main political rival, former vice-president Joe Biden.
"If impeachment and removal cannot hold him accountable, then he truly is above the law," Mr Schiff said. "Impeachment and a fair trial, impartial consideration of all the evidence against the president, is how we keep our republic."
The House managers' case is being made explicitly with two juries in mind: the senators in the chamber sitting silently at their desks who will vote on the articles of impeachment, and the American public, who will decide in less than 10 months on whether to return Mr Trump to office.
During their presentations, the House managers played video excerpts of witnesses at the House hearings. Former acting US ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor; Mr Gordon Sondland, US ambassador to the European Union; and former National Security Council official Fiona Hill, in particular, had what amounted to reprised starring roles on the Senate floor.
House prosecutors also showed several clips of Mr Trump publicly calling for Ukraine and even China to investigate Mr Biden and his son, seeking to use Mr Trump's own words to make their case.
Even without new witnesses, Democrats were able to highlight what they wanted for the millions watching on television without having any cross-examination from the president's lawyers. Entertainment industry publication Variety reported that about 11 million people watched Tuesday's opening of the trial across six cable and broadcast networks during the day.
Mr Jay Sekulow, a member of Mr Trump's defence team, said the response to the Democrats' case would combine both a rebuttal of their arguments as well as a positive defence of the president's actions. The defence will deal with the question of witnesses once the Senate decides whether they should be called, Mr Sekulow said.
One person who will not be at the trial is Mr Trump, despite joking on Wednesday that he would like to attend. "That's not the way it works," Mr Sekulow said. "Presidents don't do that."
Mr Trump, meanwhile, vented about the process on Twitter, firing off so many posts that he set a record for any single day in his presidency. The tirade continued yesterday with Mr Trump firing off multiple tweets.
BLOOMBERG, NYTIMES
