Trump Impeachment: What Is Trump's Legal Defense Against Obstruction Of Congress And Abuse Of Power?

President Trump’s legal team on Saturday began their arguments before the Senate against two articles of impeachment. The president could be removed from office for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The House impeached Trump for abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine into pursuing investigations into political opponent Joe Biden. Obstruction of Congress refers to Trump’s unwillingness to cooperate with impeachment and his direction to current and former executive branch officials to ignore subpoenas.

A key argument on abuse of power is the allegation that Trump withheld military aid in order to pressure Ukraine into the investigations. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said that the Trump administration has withheld aid for numerous countries, such as Afghanistan and Lebanon. He also said that the White House withheld $300 million in military aid to Pakistan because the Pakistani government was not doing enough to fight terrorism.

"You didn't hear about any of that from my Democratic colleagues, the House managers," Sekulow said about aid being withheld from other countries.

Sekulow has also said that there was no pressure for investigations in the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sekulow referred to Zelensky’s previous comments when he said the call was “normal” and that “nobody pushed me.”

"They think you can read minds. I think you look at the words," Sekulow said about Zelensky’s previous comments.

Pat Cipollone, the top White House lawyer, has said that the impeachment case against Trump is based on “presumptions” and “guesswork.”

"They have the burden of proof and they have not come close to meeting it," Cipollone said.

Deputy counsel Patrick Philbin has stated that the subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives on obstruction of Congress were not legitimate.

“There was no vote to authorize the committee to exercise the power of impeachment,” Philbin said, referring to the House Intelligence Committee. “So Schiff’s committee didn’t have the authority to issue subpoenas.”

He also argued that the impeachment process did not give Trump “due process.”

Trump's legal team only gave their opening arguments for about two hours on Saturday, with the trial set to resume on Monday. The legal team will then make their main arguments in defense of Trump.

Famed Harvard University professor Alan Dershowitz, another member of the Trump impeachment defense team, is expected to make the case that “abuse of power” isn’t a crime and that Trump can’t be impeached for it.