Trump Impeachment: Did POTUS Just Admit He's Withholding Evidence From Senate Trial?

President Donald Trump virtually admitted to obstructing Congress -- one of the two charges that led to his impeachment by the House -- by publicly bragging about his inevitable acquittal by the Senate because he withheld "materials" from Democrats investigating his crimes.

At a televised press conference at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Wednesday, Trump boasted of his confidence about acquittal because "Honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material."

“When we released that conversation all hell broke out with the Democrats,” said Trump during the live broadcast. “Because they said, ‘Wait a minute, this is much different than (what Adam Schiff) told us.’ ”

Trump then went on to make his admission, “So, we’re doing very well. I got to watch (the impeachment trial) enough. I thought our team did a very good job. But honestly, we have all the material. They don’t have the material.”

Trump made this astonishing, and politically lethal, confession on the very first day of impeachment arguments in the Senate. Trump's remarks were immediately seized upon and used against him by Democrats, who will now likely present it as evidence of obstruction at the ongoing Senate impeachment trial.

Rep. Val Demings, D-FL, one of the Democrat's seven impeachment managers seeking to convict Trump in the Senate, immediately tweeted, "The second article of impeachment was for obstruction of Congress: covering up witnesses and documents from the American people. This morning the President not only confessed to it, he bragged about it: 'Honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material'."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-CA, chairman of the House Intelligence Committe later weighed-in telling reporters, before the impeachment trial resumed, "The president...bragged that he thought things were going well because they had all the materials. Well, indeed they do have the material -- hidden from the American people. That is nothing to brag about."

During the House impeachment inquiry from September to December 2019, Trump repeatedly claimed executive privilege to prevent administration officials from testifying while ignoring Democrat subpoenas for documents. He also ordered administration officials not to respond to subpoena requests.

By comparison, the administration of former president Bill Clinton turned over more than 90,000 pages of documents and material during his impeachment. Clinton was impeached by the Republican-controlled House on Dec. 19, 1998 for perjury to a grand jury (first article, 228-206) and obstruction of justice (third article, 221-212).