***Live Updates*** Trump Impeachment Trial: Closing Arguments

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Tony Lee

President Donald Trump’s legal team and the House managers will make their closing arguments on Monday before Wednesday afternoon’s acquittal vote.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates. All times eastern .

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3:00 PM:

2:52 PM: Schiff says it must have been pleasantly shocking to Trump that America’s institutions are so weak and he prays his party never has a president like Trump. He says he hopes Democrats would lead the way in impeaching such a president if Democrats ever get a president like Trump. He claims Senators know history will not be kind to Trump and says Senators who vote to remove will be seen as Davids who took on Goliath by history. Schiff finishes his speech for the historians

2:39 PM: Schiff claims Republicans are saying Trump is “guilty as sin” but voters should be left to decide. He asks if they can be confident Trump will not continue to “cheat” in the next election. Schiff mocks Team Trump’s argument, asking if it would be impeachable if Trump left for Mar-a-Lago and delegated powers of war to Jared Kushner (Schiff didn’t remark on the number of books it would take for Kushner to be competent enough to have those powers.) or gave Alaska to the Russians to help him in the next election. Schiff says there is a 100% chance Trump will try to cheat in the next election until he succeeds. He then rips Attorney General William Barr, saying Trump finally didn’t have Jeff Sessions and had someone who believed in the imperial presidency.

 

2:25 PM: Demings says it is quite telling Trump’s team never discussed Trump’s “moral character” during the trial. She says young police recruits are being held to a higher moral standard than the leader of the free world. Jeffries tells the Senators that the “eyes of history” are watching and they can still convict and remove Trump at the last hour.

2:06 PM: Lofgren is up for the Democrats and says it is a problem that Trump’s lawyers are disputing what “high crimes and misdemeanors” means. Garcia then says they have to impeach because they can’t hope Trump will do better and admit wrong. She says Trump’s actions pierces the heard of who we are as a country, and Trump must be impeached for betraying his oath of office and tearing up the Constitution. Crow jabs Republicans and says even by their admission, the House managers have proven that Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to get investigations. Crow quotes Maya Angelou, Dumbledore from Harry Potter and says he has been carrying a Constitution and wrote his son a letter about impeachment.

1:59 PM: Cipollone asks the Senators to have confidence in the American people and have respect for the last election by rejecting the articles of impeachment. He rips the partisan impeachment articles occurring in an election year that do not even allege crimes. He says the American people are tired of the endless investigations and false investigations that have been coming out of the House. He urges the Senators to reject the articles on behalf of their constituents because they will vindicate the right to vote, the constitution, and the rule of law by rejecting these articles of impeachment on a bipartisan basis. He asks them to “end the era of impeachment once and for all.”

1:53: Sekulow emphasizes the House tried to usurp the president’s constitutional powers with the first article of impeachment and tried to control the constitutional privileges and immunities of the executive branch with the second while “disrespecting” the framers’ system of checks and balances.

 

1:38 PM: Sekulow says he wants to emphasize that both articles fail to allege impeachable offenses and must fail. He rips the partisan impeachment process that should never happen again. He says the push for impeachment came from the president’s opponents for the last three years and has put the Senate in a horrible position. He plays video of House Democrats calling for impeachment even before Trump was sworn into office.

1:25 PM: Philbin says the House is also not above the law and Pelosi cannot give the sole power of impeachment to committees by holding a press conference. He says the House, by denying Trump his due process rights, “fundamentally skewed” the proceedings. He says those proceedings were not designed to seek the truth. Philbin says Schiff should have been a witness and his staff were in talks with the whistleblower and guided the testimony/investigation. Philbin says the House produced a record that the Senate cannot rely on because of so many procedural defects.

He says what’s unprecedented is that the House issued 23 subpoenas without authority and Trump did not engage in “blanket defiance” because the executive branch had three different legal rationales explaining the defects of the subpoenas.

Philbin says there are so many defects and and the House is asserting privileges that are not in our system of jurisprudence because the process was purely partisan and political. Citing Federalist 65, Philbin says this is what the framers foresaw.

1:20 PM: Purpura says the House managers’ case is “not overwhelming and not undisputed” and have not met their burden of proof. He says the House managers’ witnessed have “undermined” the case and the first article does not even allege an impeachable offense.

1:07 PM: Purpura emphasizes that Trump did not condition security assistance on anything during the July phone call and witnesses confirmed. He emphasizes that Trump sets foreign policy and unelected bureaucrats implement it. Purpura notes witnesses testified that they did not hear anything “improper,” “unlawful,” or “otherwise troubling” on the phone call.

 

Purpura says even Zelensky and his top advisers have said they felt no pressure from Trump and notes the meeting with Zelensky in Warsaw took place days after the Politico article that informed Ukrainian officials of the pause in foreign assistance. Purpura also says Trump told Sondland and Sen. Johnson there was no quid pro quo.

1:05 PM: Media not happy Ken Starr quoted MLK:

12:53 PM: Ken Starr, in speaking about fundamental fairness, bizarrely brings up Deflategate and sign-stealing. He makes references to Irving Berlin, Martin Luther King, Justice Cardozo and accuses the House managers of saying they didn’t have enough time to conduct a full investigation and follow all of the rules. He asks the Senators why the House managers didn’t tell them so much while cherrypicking testimony.

12:52 PM: Cipollone says Trump’s team will complete their arguments in an “efficient” manner because the Senators already know their arguments. He says at the end of the day, this is an effort to overturn one election and interfere in another that starts today. He says the only appropriate result is to acquit the president and leave it to the voters to decide.

Starr will make the first presentation.

12:01 PM: After Schiff defends him staff from “attacks,” he quotes Elijah Cummings about standing up to “lawlessness” and “tyranny.” He claims the managers are not there representing just themselves and the House. Schiff, like other Democrats who are speaking to future liberal historians, quotes Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech and urges the Senate to convict Trump on both articles and remove Trump.

The Senate will take a 30-minute lunch break after Schiff reserves the balance of their time.

11:45 AM: Jeffries warns Senators of the “new normal” if they acquit Trump like he has done throughout the trial over and over and over again. He says with Trump, “past is prologue,” and asks the Senators what message acquitting Trump will send to America’s allies around the world. He says they will be telling them that “America’s national security is for sale” and brings up John McCain and “moral courage.”

11:26 AM: Demings now up to rehash all of Trump’s “abuses of power” and the timeline. She says Trump “ordered a massive cover-up unprecedented in American history” after his “scheme” got exposed. Demings says Trump remains unapologetic, and Trump’s “constitutional crimes” against the American people “remain in progress.” She now goes over the “totality of the president’s misconduct” all of the ways Trump, with Giuliani’s help, tried to “cheat” to win in 2020 by pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.

Demings claims the managers have presented “overwhelming” evidence that Trump has committed “grave” abuses of power then throws in a reference to Bolton’s upcoming book. Demings also says only a “guilty” person like Trump would want to prevent witnesses from testifying and withhold documents.

11:09 AM: Crow will lead off for the House managers. McConnell says Senate will take a break after they are done.

Crow begins by speaking about Daniel Webster’s March 7th speech and the Compromise of 1850. Crow says Webster was wrong about the Compromise not leading to secession but right about putting trust in the Senate. Crow again says impeachment will not overturn the last election and interfered in the next. He again rips Dershowitz for arguing that “if something is in the president’s interests, it is in the interests of the American people.” He says you don’t have to be Constitutional scholars to know this argument (the president is the state) is at odds with democracy/history.

11:01 AM: Chief Justice John Roberts should soon gavel in the Senate.

10:55 AM: Dem. Senators would rather be doing retail politics in Iowa.

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