The Republican-controlled Senate rejected a bid to force the White House to produce more documents and evidence as part of Donald Trump's impeachment trial, as Democrats warn rules blocking additional evidence and testimony to be introduced would result in a "cover-up".
As the impeachment trial began in earnest, senators voted 53-47 along party lines to block a motion from Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to subpoena White House documents related to Mr Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
On the first day of the trial, Mr Trump’s chief legal defender attacked the case as baseless as a top Democratic politician said there was “overwhelming” evidence of wrongdoing.
Democrats have called on the Senate to remove Mr Trump from office for pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival, and then impeding the inquiry into the matter.
Mr Trump, who was impeached last month by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on charges of abusing power and obstructing Congress, says he has done nothing wrong and describes his impeachment as a "total hoax" to derail his 2020 re-election.
Mr Trump made his remarks during an event with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone arrives at the Capitol Hill. Source: AP
With the television cameras rolling, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts convened the proceedings and the two sides began squabbling over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules for the trial.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who is leading Mr Trump’s defence, attacked the foundation of the charges against the Republican president and said Democrats had not come close to meeting the US Constitution’s standard for impeachment.
“The only conclusion will be that the president has done absolutely nothing wrong,” Mr Cipollone said as he argued in favour of Mr McConnell’s proposal to decide on whether to allow further witnesses or documents later in the trial.
“There is absolutely no case,” he said.
A member of Mr Trump's legal team, Jay Sekulow, argued that impeachment was a witch-hunt, devised to target the President because they did not like him.
"Are we here because of a phone call, or are we here ... because when the president was sworn into office there was a desire to see him removed," Mr Sekulow asked.
“When the Russia investigation failed, it devolved into the Ukraine."
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer speaks before the impeachment trial. Source: Senate Television
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, who helped spearhead the House impeachment inquiry, summarised the charges against Mr Trump and said the Republican president had committed a “trifecta of constitutional misconduct justifying impeachment.”
Mr Schiff said that although the evidence against the President was “already overwhelming,” further witness testimony was necessary to show the full scope of the misconduct by the president and those around him.
Democrats want a number of current and former Trump administration officials, including Mr Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, to testify.
“For all of the name-calling and fingerpointing from the president’s counsel, we did not hear a single argument on the merits about why there should not be the documents and witnesses we requested in this trial,” Mr Schumer said.
Mr McConnell unveiled a plan on Monday for what would be a potentially quick trial without new testimony or evidence. It would have given Democratic prosecutors and Mr Trump’s lawyers 48 hours, evenly split, to present their arguments over four days.
That plan was changed to give each side three days of opening arguments over two 24-hour periods. The rules also will allow the House’s record of the impeachment probe admitted as evidence in the trial, as Democrats had demanded.
“We discussed it at lunch. It was pretty much a [Republican] conference consensus that made a lot more sense,” Republican Senator Ron Johnson said.
During Mr Schiff's opening address, Mr Trump tweeted from Switzerland: "READ THE TRANSCRIPTS!"
Democrats had accused Mr McConnell of trying to rig a trial with proposed rules that they said would prevent witnesses from testifying and bar evidence gathered by investigators.
Mr McConnell has repeatedly said the rules would mirror those the Senate used in the 1999 impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Republican senators have not ruled out the possibility of further witness testimony and evidence.
Opening arguments may well run late each night. With a two-thirds majority needed in the 100-member Senate to remove Mr Trump from office, he is almost certain to be acquitted by fellow Republicans in the chamber.
But the impact of the trial on his re-election bid is far from clear.
