Donald Trump will have to wait until Wednesday, February 5, to be acquitted by the Senate after his impeachment trial, as predicted by the arithmetic of the High Assembly. But he had his first victory on Friday, January 31, with the close vote in which the majority of Republican senators, by 51 votes to 49, rejected the prospect of hearing new witnesses. The measure concerned, first of all, the former national security adviser to the President of the United States, John Bolton, author of a book which considerably weakens the arguments of the lawyers responsible for defending him before the senators.
Donald Trump was indicted on December 18, 2019 by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The first article refers to the haggling loaned to him when he conditioned crucial military aid to Ukraine and an invitation to the White House by its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to the opening of investigations by Kiev targeting its democratic adversaries , including former Vice President Joe Biden, whom he may face in November. The second targets the tactics of the White House, which has refused to authorize the slightest testimony from relatives of the president and the disclosure of documents related to this affair.
The two days devoted to Senators' Questions, written and read by the President of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, on Wednesday and Thursday, gave an overview of the positions that crystallized during Friday's vote.
"Overwhelming Evidence"
The Democratic camp has camped on a contradiction highlighted by the president's lawyers. Prosecutors of the House, who defended the two articles voted a month earlier, both assured that they had "Overwhelming evidence" while asking that senators be able to take note of new elements that the elected members of the House could not gather given the obstruction of the White House. Donald Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly criticized the Democrats for not taking legal action to force the hand of the president.
But the president's lawyers, and the Republican senators who took up their arguments, offered the same weakness by ensuring that the Democrats' indictments were based only on " one says " while opposing hearing from whoever was the president’s national security adviser. Their position became even more uncomfortable with the revelations contained in the book which John Bolton is due to publish in March and made public by the New york times January 26 and 31.
