President Trump’s defense team opened the second day of its arguments against the impeachment articles without mentioning surprise incriminating allegations by former national security adviser John Bolton.
“We deal with transcript evidence,” Trump’s top defense lawyer, Jay Sekulow, told senators. “We deal with publicly available information. We do not deal with speculation, allegations, that are not based on evidentiary standards at all.”
Senate Republicans were caught by surprise by the Bolton revelations, which were published Sunday night from a leaked draft of his forthcoming book.
Bolton’s book claims Trump wanted to withhold critical aid to Ukraine to pressure the government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic officials.
Republicans are eager to hear the president respond to the claims, but the defense team started Day Two of its arguments without mentioning Bolton’s allegation.
Instead, Ken Starr, the former independent counsel in the Clinton impeachment case and now part of Trump’s defense team, argued impeachment is being used too often and for political purposes.
“It divides the country like nothing else,” Starr told senators. “Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment deeply understand that.”
