A day before the Senate impeachment trial kicks off, President Trump’s legal team urged the Senate to “swiftly and roundly condemn” the articles of impeachment that it characterized as “flimsy” in a brief filed to the Senate Monday.
The Dem Response to the WH/GOP answer is below and trashes it appropriately: https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/in_re_president_trump_house_impeachment_replication_1.20.20.pdf
This thing has John Barron’s tiny fingerprints all over it.
the two articles of impeachment brought against Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — are not impeachable offenses.
What say Lindsey?
Fitting, given how the White House has been completely off the rails for the last three very, very, very long years…
Haven’t seen anything surprising in this, but I haven’t read it all.
It seems like a slightly more formally worded version of what was released on Sat.
ETA
Original “brief” was w/out a single footnote or citation of Constitution or legal precedent.
Laughable. It’s Trump’s NYC shysters & grifters trying to put a gloss of legalese on a transcription of his spittle-inflected baby-talk rage.
Democrats know they are not going to remove Pres. Trump on their two impeachment hoaxes. They know Pres. Trump is going to win the 2020 presidential election. What they are trying to do now is save the House.
When Meadowlark Lemon left the GlobeTrotter scene, I always wondered what had ever happened to the Washington Generals.
That’s excellent snark.
Sorry about your mocked, humiliating, lonely high school experience.
But trolling Democrats on the Internet is no way to go through life, son.
An ad hominem deflection; how cute.
We’ve all been on tenterhooks awaiting your input. And now that we have it, I must say it lives up to our expectations.
What the brief failed to say is that when acquitted, the Senate is signaling to me that I can do anything I damn well please. Best yet there is nothing the House can do about. Thank you very much.
@dr_coyote…the first indicator I saw of Trump panic was him tweeting so close to the trial. And I noted it.
The troll appearance at this particular date and time is yet another one.
I know that you will not do this, but please let’s not give this guy any play . Ignore him.
This is more a primal scream than a rebuttal. But, somehow, I doubt he’s feeling any better.
So what’s the opposite of a stiff upper lip?
Also, trolls can dominate a thread and skew it into non-productive discourse. As I type this, he’s got another salvo planned.
Yep, I remember him from last iterations 
Well written response by Dems that calls out the double standard of the WH/President Trump cannot have it both ways.
“His Answer directly disputes key facts. He must either surrender all evidence relevant to the facts he has disputed or concede the facts as charged.”
That’s key b/c it shows that this isn’t a summary judgment type move, but that WH/GOP
is trying to have it both ways: deny facts that the House put into evidence and yet not present any evidence in support of their assertions. Claim the House rushed, but sit on subpoenaed evidence.
“Despite President Trump’s stonewalling of the impeachment inquiry, the House amassed overwhelming evidence of his guilt.”
This is also key. Trump claims the right to obstruct, but he didn’t do it well, so there’s evidence here of high crimes which he can’t rebut.
WH/GOP can’t argue that Trump ‘did nothing wrong’ AND that the House failed to state an impeachable claim. Either they stipulate to the facts and claim it’s not impeachable, or they contest the facts and charges and provide the evidence to support their position of not guilty.
The one gap the GOP intends to exploit is the Dems not addressing the ‘federal crime’ issue here as a basis for impeachment. Though the GOP is wrong on this, the Dems have answers here but are not in this particular document.
1.Violation of Fed law isn’t required for impeachability (House can impeach a ‘ham sandwich’ if it wants), 2. GAO and ICIG alleged violations of law. 3. Impeachment articles point to bribery/extortion, 4. Obstruction, which is as plain as day, is a federal crime. DOJ can handle the criminal violations post conviction.
The other thing to note (which the Dems do) is that Trump was impeached because of the evidence they compiled in spite of his obstruction AND his obstruction. So it’s a double whammy for the Trumpers. He was a bad cover up artist and he still covered up stuff. That exposes him as both a crook and a bad one at that because he couldn’t hide all the evidence.