WASHINGTON — House Democrats have filed their brief explaining why President Donald Trump should be impeached, while his legal team has too submitted their arguments defending why he should remain in the Oval Office.
Democrats from the House of Representatives in a brief filed on Saturday for the impeachment trial say Trump "abandoned his oath" and "must be removed from office."
Democrats say in the brief filed ahead of trial arguments that Trump abandoned his oath to faithfully execute the laws and betrayed his public trust. They also called his conduct the “worst nightmare" of the country's founding fathers.
The brief Saturday came shortly after the White House sent the Senate a fiery response to its formal impeachment summons, outlining the defenses it expects to use in the upcoming trial.
Trump's team calls the two articles of impeachment passed by the House last month “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president.”
Trump's legal team had sent the response to the Senate outlining the defenses it expects to use in the upcoming trial.
Two people close to the president's team say the filling adds: “This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away."
His answer to the summons had been the first salvo in what will be several rounds of arguments before the trial, which is expected to begin formally on Tuesday.
The dueling statements preview arguments both sides intend to make once the proceedings begin in earnest.
Democrats and lawyers for the president are seeking to make their case for a Republican-led Senate and for an American public bracing for a presidential election in 10 months.
