US President Donald Trump's legal team has asked the Senate to reject the two articles of impeachment. (Photo Credit: File Photo)
New Delhi:
US President Donald Trump's legal team has asked the Senate to reject the two articles of impeachment, calling it a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their President. In a major development to remove President Trump from office for his alleged abuse of power, the US House of Representatives voted to send articles of impeachment to the Senate. In a 228-193 vote, the House appointed seven impeachment managers who will argue the Democrats' case for removing Trump from the office of the US President.
Responding to the charges filed against Donald Trump, the legal team of the White House said the two articles are a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the will of the people of the county.
"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. The highly partisan and reckless obsession with impeaching the President began the day he was inaugurated and continues to this day, the legal team said.
Trump has been accused for allegedly making telephone call to Ukrain President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, who was had served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
Joe Biden is a leading contender in the race for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. There has been no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens.
The WH’s legal team said that the articles of impeachment are a dangerous attack on the right of the American people.
“The articles of impeachment submitted by the House of Representatives are a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their President,” it said.
The House, in its 111-page brief, said that Trumps conduct is the Framers’ worst nightmare.
“The Senate should do its constitutional duty to address the ongoing threat that the President poses to the nation by convicting and removing him from office,” the brief mentions.
Ken Starr, who was at the centre of Bill Clinton's impeachment in the 1990s, and America's biggest celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz were announced to be joining President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment defense. The administration has yet to unveil the full team but confirmed that White House counsel Pat Cipollone will be lead lawyer, backed by Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow.
"President Trump has done nothing wrong and is confident that this team will defend him, the voters, and our democracy from this baseless, illegitimate impeachment," the White House said in a statement.
