Impeachment trial of President Trump

By Meg Wagner, Veronica Rocha and Mike Hayes, CNN

Updated 9:00 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020
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2:58 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

Trump's legal team just wrapped up their opening statements

Senate TV
Senate TV

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone just finished giving opening arguments for Trump's legal team.

He urged senators to "come together on both sides of the aisle and end the era of impeachment for good."

"You know it should end. You know it should end," he added.

What happens next: The next phase of the impeachment trial is a question-and-answer period, where senators will have 16 hours to ask questions.

2:58 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

Trump lawyer asks senators to "defend our Constitution"

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone urged senators to reject the impeachment articles against President Trump and defend "our Constitution."

"You know what the right answer is in your heart. You know what the right answer is for our country. You know what the right answer is for the American people," he said.

Cipollone then raised the issue of the upcoming 2020 election, and implored senators to allow "every American to vote and to choose their president."

"What they are asking you to do is to throw out a successful president on the eve of an election with no basis and in violation of the Constitution. It would dangerously change our country and weaken — weaken forever all of our democratic institutions. You all know that's not in the interests of the American people. Why not trust the American people with this decision. Why tear up their ballots, why tear up every ballot across this country. You can't do that. You know you can't do that. So I ask you to defend our Constitution, to defend fundamental fairness, to defend basic due process rights, but most importantly — most importantly, to respect and defend the sacred right of every American to vote and to choose their president. The election is only months away. The American people are entitled to choose their president," Cipollone said.

2:57 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

The Senate trial is back in session

Senate TV
Senate TV

The Senate impeachment trial is back from a short break. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is delivering his closing arguments.

Earlier today, when Cipollone previewed how their arguments would play out, he indicated he'd be the last person on President Trump's team to speak.

2:40 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

How Democrats are responding to the defense team's Bolton comments

From CNN's Jeremy Herb

Senate TV
Senate TV

A Democratic official working on the impeachment trial said Jay Sekulow, the President’s lawyer, continues to make the case for former national security adviser John Bolton being called as a witness in the Senate trial.

During his arguments today, Sekulow addressed Bolton's unpublished manuscript, which according to the New York Times, describes how President Trump in August told him that he wanted to continue holding military aid to Ukraine until the country helped with investigations into Democrats — including former Vice President Joe Biden.

In his arguments, Sekulow referenced Trump lawyer and Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, who argued last night that Bolton’s accusations do not amount to an impeachable offense. "Let me repeat: Nothing in the Bolton revelations — even if true — would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense,” Dershowitz said last night.

"Now, to be specific, you cannot impeach a president on an unsourced allegation, but what professor Dershowitz is saying is even if everything in there was true, it constitutionally doesn't rise to that level," Sekulow said.

He said impeachment is "not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts."

2:19 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

The Senate is taking a recess

The Senate impeachment trial will return following a 15-minute break.

2:15 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

Trump's defense team invokes Comey and Mueller on their last day of arguments

From CNN's Allie Malloy

Senate TV/Getty Images
Senate TV/Getty Images

Outside counsel for President Trump, Jay Sekulow, is using the remaining time of the team's opening arguments to blast former FBI director James Comey and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

He also listed a series of issues from Christopher Steele's infamous dossier, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the an affair between two former FBI officials.

“Does it bother your sense of justice even a little bit — even a little bit — that Bob Mueller allowed the evidence on the phones of those agents to be wiped clean while there was an investigation going on by the inspector general?” Sekulow said, referencing the text messages sent between the FBI employees.

“Now, if you did it, if you did it, manager Schiff, if you did it, manager Jeffries, if I did that, destroyed evidence, if anyone in this chamber did this, we'd be in serious trouble. Their serious trouble is they get fired. Bob Mueller's explanation for it is, I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened, I can't recall the conversations. You can't view this case in a vacuum,” Sekulow continued. 

Sekulow also went after Comey, who was fired by President Trump.

“The President of the United States, before he was the President, was under an investigation. It was called Crossfire Hurricane. It was an investigation led by the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. James Comey eventually told the President a little about the investigation and referenced the Steele dossier. James Comey, the then-director of the FBI, said it was salacious and unverified. So salacious and unverified that they used it as a basis to obtain FISA warrants. Members, managers here, managers at this table right here, said that any discussions on the abuse from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, utilized to get the FISA warrants from the court, were conspiracy theories," he said.

1:56 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

Republican senator: Votes for witnesses is "up in the air"

From CNN's Ted Barrett

Patrick Semansky/AP
Patrick Semansky/AP

Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, says the status on votes for witnesses is "up in the air."

“We’re talking to our colleagues. It’s up in the air,” he said. 

Cornyn also believes the John Bolton revelations do not rise to the level of impeachment.

“I read the New York Times story. I don’t think anything the report adds anything new to what we already know. We know there were conversations that had to do with investigations. We know there were conversations about aid. But ultimately the President released the money before the end of the fiscal year and an investigation didn’t occur. I don’t see that Mr. Bolton adds anything to what we already know," Cornyn said.

1:53 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

Mitt Romney is drinking chocolate milk during the trial today

From CNN's Clare Foran

As the trial began today, Sen. Mitt Romney was spotted with a glass of chocolate milk on his desk.

Sen. Joe Manchin is also drinking a glass of milk this afternoon, but not chocolate milk, just regular milk.

Romney made short work of his chocolate milk – finishing the entire glass by about 1:20 p.m. ET, after which a page promptly removed it from his desk. 

You can read more about why so many senators have been drinking milk during the trial here.

1:52 p.m. ET, January 28, 2020

Trump lawyer: Impeachment "is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts"

Senate TV
Senate TV

Jay Sekulow, one of President Trump's lawyers, believes removing the President from office would "lower the bar of impeachment."

"What we are involved in here as we conclude is perhaps the most solemn of duties under our constitutional framework," he said. "The trial of the leader of the free world and the duly elected president of the United States. It is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts. That's politics, unfortunately, and Hamilton put impeachment in the hands of this body, the Senate, precisely and specifically to be above that fray."

Sekulow, speaking directly to senators, went on to say that legal scholars have weighed on the impeachment and they've have "a common theme with a dire warning: Danger. Danger. Danger."

"To lower the bar of impeachment, based on these articles of impeachment, would impact the functioning of our constitutional republic and the framework of that Constitution for generations," he said.