As Day Seven of the Trump impeachment trial closed yesterday, President Trump’s attorneys kept beating their drum: whatever acts the President may or may not have committed weren’t impeachable and that the President's concerns about corruption in Ukraine were legitimate.
As for the advent of allegations made by for National Security Advisor John Bolton? They say that’s nothing, too. Here’s a rundown of the arguments made:
Attorney Eric Herschmann questioned why Hunter Biden was given a lucrative post on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company. Biden is the son of Joe Biden, who was vice president at the time.
Herschmann called Burisma a corrupt company. He accused Biden of initiating the firing of a top Ukrainian prosecutor. Biden has called the prosecutor corrupt.
Deputy White House Counsel Michael Purpura is insisting that President Trump was deeply concerned about corruption in Ukraine.
Purpura rejected Democratic arguments that Trump never cared about corruption when he withheld vital U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Purpura stressed that Trump was legitimately disturbed about corruption and was angry that U.S. allies were not doing their fair share to help Ukraine. He called it "burden sharing."
Purpura said there's no proof that Trump withheld the aid until Ukraine's president committed to launch a corruption investigation. He also rejected Democratic assertions that Trump denied the Ukrainian president a coveted White House meeting.
Legal scholar Alan Dershowitz said the House articles of impeachment against the President simply don’t meet the constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Dershowitz said abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are "vague and open-ended" concepts. He also argued that House Democrats did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Dershowitz noted that he voted for Hillary Clinton and would be making the same arguments if the House impeached her on similar grounds.
The proceedings continue today at 1pm ET.
Source: C-SPAN
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