Highlights From Senate Impeachment Trial (Tuesday, January 28, 2020)

What happened Tuesday?

President Donald Trump’s legal team wrapped up their opening arguments on Tuesday —delivering to the president the defense he wanted.

Trump’s attorneys attacked and undermined some of his favorite targets, including former FBI Director James Comey and Joe Biden, but mostly sidestepped the Democratic House managers’ arguments for Trump’s removal.

While new revelations from former national security adviser John Bolton still reverberated in Washington, Trump’s lead personal attorney Jay Sekulow urged senators not to consider Bolton’s claims linking the president directly to stalled Ukraine aid. “[Impeachment] is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts,” he said on the Senate floor.

By the end of the day, Republican senators were once again pushing for a quick end to the trial. Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting cautiously optimistic that they could defeat an effort to call new witnesses on Friday, with top Republicans warning that seeking new testimony could extend the impeachment trial for weeks or even months.

What’s happening Wednesday?

The trial will reconvene at 1 p.m., and senators will have their first shot to ask questions of the impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team — and try to poke holes in each side’s arguments.

But Senate Democrats and Republicans still won’t be able to speak. They will have to write their questions down and submit them to Chief Justice John Roberts, who will then read them aloud. Senators also have to direct their inquiries to either the president’s lawyers or the House prosecutors, not both.

Here are the most noteworthy moments from the seventh day of the trial

> Trump’s request for investigation ‘rattled’ Ukraine
> Lindsey Graham supports plan to let senators view Bolton’s manuscript
> Senate eyes short trial day before Q and A session

Lots more HERE and follow links below to other sources:

WSJ: Trump’s Impeachment Trial—Live Analysis

AXIOS: Trump impeachment trial recap, day 7: Trump’s team closes its case

USA TODAY: ‘Danger, danger, danger’: Trump defense team warns against impeachment and other takeaways

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