By María Peña
WASHINGTON.— The team of ‘prosecutors’ Democrats took advantage of their third and final day of arguments this Friday to detail how the president Donald Trump It is a serious danger for the country because it violated the law, covered it up and will violate it again in this year’s elections, and deserves removal.
Representatives of the Lower House made detailed presentations, using videos, slides, photos, written testimonies and legal and constitutional arguments to show how Trump abused his power and “public trust” for his benefit, and then obstructed Congress’s investigation. about his dealings with Ukraine to cover up his violations of the law.
In addition, the representatives urged the Republican senators to “do their duty” and see beyond the interests of their party.
Video: What do the senators who act as jury of the Trump political trial think? We ask
In charge of closing his arguments, the Democratic legislator for California and chief ‘prosecutor’ of the case, Adam SchiffHe said Trump has put his interests above those of the country.
“The result has been and will continue to be a serious damage to our nation if this camera does not get up and claims that this is wrong“, he emphasized.
“I ask you, I implore you: give the United States a fair trial. It deserves it,” said Schiff, an experienced California prosecutor.
On the closing day, one of the most striking moments occurred when Schiff mentioned a report from the CBS network about Trump’s legal team threats against Republican senators voting to dismiss him.
According to CBS, a Trump confidant said Republican senators have been warned: “vote against the president and their heads will end in a pica.”
Immediately there was a clear murmur of protests from several Republican senators, including Susan Collins, who vigorously responded with a “not true.” The rules of the trial prohibit expressions of any kind from the jury.
Even if it was a language in a figurative sense, it is most likely that the Administration will continue to press to expedite the conclusion of the trial, to focus the energies on the electoral contest.
Over the course of three days, the strategy of the seven prosecutors of the House of Representatives was to detail the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, also relying on Trump’s own words, public testimony of members of his Administration, and documents disclosed last year.
They also tried to persuade the Republican bench, which controls the Senate, to bring more witnesses and documents to the political trial against Trump, known in English as impeachment.
The Democratic strategy: build an argument in favor of dismissal
In the last two days, prosecutors outlined Trump’s alleged pressure campaign in 2019 for Ukraine to announce an investigation against the former vice president, Joe biden, his possible rival in the presidential race next November.
According to the Democrats, Trump conditioned about $ 400 million in military aid to Ukraine (a small country that is at war with Russia) and a state visit to the White House, in exchange for the president of that country, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announce the investigation, with the idea of smearing the image of Biden.
Trump’s defense is that he wanted that investigation to end corruption, and he was worried about the waste of US taxpayers’ money in Ukraine.
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But people close to the matter, such as the ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondlandthey said under oath that Trump “He didn’t care about corruption … he only cared about big things”, and I just wanted a research announcement, not really done.
During Friday, prosecutors’ goal has been to detail Trump’s alleged efforts to cover up that pressure campaign, how he withheld military aid to Ukraine, and how covered up this by refusing to hand over documents or forbidding members of his Administration to testify under oath in Congress.
For Democrats, Trump pressured Ukraine to seek his personal benefit and to “cheat” in the 2020 elections, not for the interest of the United States or for his alleged concern about corruption in that country.