Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for President Trump, arriving Thursday on Capitol Hill.Credit score...Calla Kessler/The New York InstancesJay Sekulow, the pr
Jay Sekulow, the president’s lawyer and one of many leaders of his protection workforce, declared that “nothing has modified within the final day and a half of their two and a half days.”
He declined to say whether or not the White Home protection would request any changes to the schedule on Saturday, saying that they might do what “our authorized workforce thinks is acceptable to current our case.”
Throughout a break within the trial, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority chief, applauded the Home managers for “pre-empting” arguments from the president’s protection workforce.
Mr. Sekulow was undeterred. “I’m assured that whether or not it’s Saturday, or Monday or Tuesday that the case will probably be made defending the president,” he mentioned. “I’ve little question.”
The principles of the Senate trial say the senators are supposed to be sitting of their seats all through the presentation. In President Trump’s trial, they’re treating that rule fairly liberally.
At one level Thursday morning, when Consultant Jerrold Nadler of New York completed his presentation, 19 seats on the Senate flooring belonging to a mixture of Republicans and Democrats had been empty, in keeping with Peter Baker, The New York Instances’s chief White Home correspondent, who was sitting within the press gallery.
Most had been solely vacant for a couple of minutes. It appeared, Mr. Baker mentioned, that a number of senators had been treating the tip of Mr. Nadler’s presentation — which was adopted instantly by one from a fellow Home supervisor, Consultant Sylvia R. Garcia of New York — as an unofficial break.
Ten minutes after the tip of Mr. Nadler’s presentation, 10 seats had been nonetheless empty. 5 minutes after that, many of the senators had wandered again in, and solely 4 seats had been empty.
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Democratic presidential candidate, was one of many senators who left, at 1:59 p.m. She returned 15 minutes later, taking her seat once more at 2:14 p.m.
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky had a white authorized notepad in entrance of him as Thursday’s impeachment trial started — and he was busy doodling.
On the highest web page, Mr. Paul had created an in depth, and spectacular, doodle of america Capitol. Drawn with a blue ballpoint pen, the drawing lined your entire backside third of the paper.
At one level, Consultant Sylvia Garcia of Texas, a Home supervisor, confirmed a video clip of George P. Kent, a State Department official, being asked whether or not some Republicans, like Mr. Paul, believed that what President Trump did in Ukraine was the identical as what former Vice President Joseph R. Biden did when he tried to get a corrupt prosecutor fired.
Trying up from his doodle, Mr. Paul smiled and raised a fist along with his index finger prolonged, as if to say, “Sure!” Then, when Mr. Kent answered by saying that what Mr. Biden did was very totally different than what Mr. Trump did, Mr. Paul lowered his arm.
And he went again to his doodle.
Consultant Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and chairman of the Home Judiciary Committee, started the Home presentation on Thursday with an hourlong lecture on the constitutional historical past of impeachment.
He insisted that the historical past of the Structure makes it clear {that a} legal violation will not be essential to impeach the president. In making the argument, he cited phrases from a few of President Trump’s key allies in his impeachment protection: Alan Dershowitz, a member of the president’s impeachment workforce; William P. Barr, the legal professional normal; and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.
He concluded his presentation with a forceful assertion to the senators: “Impeachment is geared toward presidents who act as if they’re above the regulation, at presidents who consider their very own pursuits are extra essential than these of the nation, and thus at president who ignore proper and flawed in pursuit of their very own achieve.”
“Abuse. Betrayal. Corruption,” he mentioned. “Listed here are the core offenses, the framers feared most. The president’s abuse of energy, his betrayal of the nationwide curiosity, and his corruption of our elections plainly certified as nice and harmful offenses.”
Drawing on authorized students and liberally quoting historic figures, Mr. Nadler argued that the founders of the nation envisioned that impeachment can be required for presidential abuses of energy just like the misconduct the Home alleged when it…