Rep. Adam Schiff sets out the case v. Donald Trump to the US Senate, January 22, 2020

In eight hours of formal argument, House impeachment managers set out a meticulous case for the conviction of Donald Trump on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead House prosecutor, used a measure opening statement to describe Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate Presidential candidate Joe Biden and to cover up Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election.

Schiff began with an explanation of the Founders’ views on the necessity of the impeachment process, rebuffing the attempt by Trump’s attorneys to say their client’s behavior and actions could not be tried.

We are here today…because Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States, has acted precisely as [Alexander] Hamilton and his contemporaries feared.

President Trump solicited foreign interference in our democratic elections, abusing the power of his office to seek help from abroad to improve his re-election prospects at home.

And when he was caught, he used the powers of that office to obstruct the investigation into his own misconduct.

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Despite the handcuffs imposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, including no documents and no witnesses, Schiff used findings from the House impeachment hearings to detail the 10-month campaign of Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for “a simple but corrupt reason — to help him win re-election in 2020 — but the effect was to undermine our free and fair elections and put our national security at risk”.

The California representative resurrected the evidence of Trump’s pursuit of Russian assistance in 2016, set out in the 446-page Mueller Report but buried by Attorney General William Barr and other members of Trump’s inner circle. He recounted Trump’s invitation to Moscow to hack the computers of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign — a public call followed hours later by an expansion of the Russian effort to steal e-mails.

“The President has made it clear this would not be the last time, asking China recently to join Ukraine in investigating his political opponent,” he noted.

Schiff summarized:

If not remedied by his conviction in the Senate, and removal from office, President Trump’s abuse of his office and obstruction of Congress will permanently alter the balance of power among the branches of government. The President has shown that he believes that he’s above the law and scornful of constraint.

The other six House managers followed Schiff’s lead, focusing on documentation of Trump’s efforts and maintained an even tone, following Chief Justice John Robert’s early-morning intervention on the first day after a clash between House manager Rep. Jerry Nadler and White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

Nadler described the Trump-Giuliani disinformation campaign against US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, prominent in the anti-corruption effort but seen as an obstacle to Trump’s pursuit of a Biden investigation. She was finally recalled by Trump in late April 2019.

Rep. Jason Crow explained the national security implications of withholding the Ukraine aid, and Rep. Val Demings described Trump’s refusal of a White House meeting with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy until Kyiv acquiesced to his wishes.

Seeking the Evidence

The outcome of the trial is almost certain, with the 53-47 Republican advantage in seats guaranteeing that the 2/3rds majority needed for conviction will not be achieved.

But the House managers are hoping to establish a record, despite McConnell’s obstacles, to maintain accountability for Trump and future occupants of the Oval Office.

So far the 53 Republicans have held firm behind the Majority Leader in blocking documents and witness testimony, rejecting 11 motions by Minority Leader Charles Schumer on Tuesday.

Schiff emphasized the need to hear from former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has said he will testify if summoned by the Senate. He noted Bolton’s description of the Trump-Giuliani campaign, which included Trump’s freeze of security assistance to Ukraine, as a “drug deal”.

McConnell has rejected Schumer’s request for testimony from Bolton and three current officials who followed White House orders and defied subpoenas in the House hearings: White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, his chief aide Robert Blair, and Michael Duffey, the top political appointee at the Office of Management and Budget.

Mulvaney and Blair implemented Trump’s order to freeze $391 million in security assistance until Ukraine announced investigations, even as Kyiv faces Russian-supported separatists the east of the country. Duffey e-mailed the Pentagon to implement the commmand, only 90 minutes after Trump’s July 25 call with President Zelenskiy.

Schiff rejected a trade in which Bolton would be allowed if Republicans could summon Joe Biden’s son Hunter, a board member with the Ukrainian gas company Burisma: “This isn’t like some fantasy football trade. Trials aren’t trades for witnesses.”

Trump and Giuliani pursued and promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory that Joe Biden, to protect his son, obtained the firing of Ukraine Proescutor-General Viktor Shokin in 2016.

Obstruction, Tweets, and New Information

In a rambling news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump unwittingly reinforced the House case that he is obstructing Congress: “We have all the material. They don’t have the material.”

Rep. Val Demings, one of the House managers, responded, “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.”

Trump rejected any testimony by Bolton, whom he dismissed in September, “[He] “knows my thoughts on certain people and other governments, war and peace and different things — that’s a national security problem.”

By 11:30 pm Wednesday, Trump tweeted or retweeted 142 messages, overtaking his previous record of 123 in December.

But outside the trial, new evidence was published about Trump’s freeze the Ukraine security investigation.

The 192 pages of documents, released late Tuesday, depict tension between the Pentagon and the White House over Trump’s demand.

Even Republican legislators were unsettled. An aide to Sen. Rob Portman sent the message: “[He] is very interested in ensuring Ukraine has the military capabilities it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression….I would appreciate if you could lay out for me the reason behind the OMB hold and what the process is for getting the funding released.”

Sen. James Inhofe and Rep. Mac Thornberry also sought explanations, but the White House did not provide one.

Trump’s freeze was only lifted on September 11, after the House received the formal complaint, made by the CIA liaison with the White House over Ukraine, about the Trump-Zelenskiy call.