White House Legal Team Slams “Frivolous”, “Dangerous” Impeachment Charade; Seeks “Speedy Acquittal”

President Trump’s legal team filed a lengthy legal brief on Monday in which they have asked for a ‘speedy acquittal’ from the Senate, as they begin impeachment proceedings on two articles advanced by the House after a four-week delay. 

Trump’s legal team notes that the impeachment articles fail to cite any violation of the law, and the charge that Trump obstructed Congress was a “frivolous and dangerous” attempt to alter the separation of powers outlined by the framers in the Constitution, according to CNN.

The briefing comes one day after Trump’s legal team filed a shorter document on Saturday which laid out their arguments against impeachment – calling it “constitutionally invalid” and an attack on Americans.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers plan to dismiss the largely party-line impeachment by the House as a “brazenly political act” following a “rigged process” that should be repudiated by the Senate, according to a person working with his legal team, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the submission of the trial brief. They will argue that neither of the articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump are valid because they do not state a violation of the law and they would in effect try to punish the president for foreign policy decisions and efforts to preserve executive prerogatives. –NYT

Trump’s attorneys don’t deny that he asked Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and other matters related to the 2016 US election – however they argue that the President has the right to conduct international relations between countries as he sees fit, and that he had valid grounds for raising the aforementioned issues. 

The briefing rejects the notion that Trump abused his power, calling it a “novel theory” which was a “newly invented” offense which would set a dangerous precedent for the ability of future presidents to conduct legitimate foreign policy.

According to the filing, the “articles of impeachment as a matter of law are deficient on their face.”

Trump, meanwhile, weighed in from Florida – arguing over Twitter that he wasn’t being treated fairly, while dismissing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)’s call for ‘fairness.’

Cryin’ Chuck Schumer is now asking for “fairness”, when he and the Democrat House members worked together to make sure I got ZERO fairness in the House. So, what else is new?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2020

They didn’t want John Bolton and others in the House. They were in too much of a rush. Now they want them all in the Senate. Not supposed to be that way!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2020

Read the briefing below: