US Democratic House prosecutors concluded their final arguments on Friday at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, arguing the president would continue to abuse his position ahead of the 2020 election unless Congress intervenes to remove him from office.
The wrap-up came as congressional investigators were handed an explosive 2018 recording of Trump ordering the removal of the US ambassador to Ukraine, whose withdrawal a year later has become an issue in the trial.
“He is who he is,” Representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told senators in the hearing, accusing Trump of putting the US-Ukraine relationship on the line in a way that benefited Russia just so he could take a political “cheap shot” at Joe Biden.
“You cannot leave a man like that in office,” Schiff said. “You know it’s not going to stop. It’s not going to stop unless the Congress does something about it.”
The Democratic prosecutors ended their three days of presentations before Republican senators on Friday night.
The president’s legal team was expected to start tabling their defence this morning.
Trump, eyes on the audience beyond the Senate chamber, bemoaned the schedule in a tweet, saying “looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in TV”.
The president is being tried in the Senate after the House impeached him last month, accusing him of abusing his office by asking Ukraine for politically motivated probes of political foe Joe Biden and Biden’s son while withholding military aid from a US ally that was at war with bordering Russia.
The second article of impeachment accuses him of obstructing Congress by refusing to turn over documents or allow officials to testify in the House probe.
The drama surrounding the trial took another twist on Friday night when ABC News reported the story about the recording of Trump speaking to a small group of people at an April 2018 dinner at his Washington hotel.
Trump reportedly demanded the removal of US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was withdrawn from her post a year later.
ABC said a speaker who appears to be Trump says on the recording: “Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.”
The recording has been provided to congressional investigators by Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Parnas was reportedly among the group speaking with Trump when the recording was made.
Yovanovitch, who was viewed as an obstacle to investigations into Biden and his son Hunter, has said the decision to recall her from her position was based on “unfounded and false claims" that she was disloyal to Trump from "people with clearly questionable motives”.
The recording also appears to contradict the president’s statements that he did not know Parnas, a key figure in the investigation.
The recording has now been given by Parnas’s lawyer to the House Intelligence Committee, whose chairman Schiff is helping lead the impeachment proceedings.
The White House denied any suggestion of presidential wrongdoing.
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