Trump lawyers offer surprisingly un-Trumpy defense to impeachment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just before his lawyers stepped into the U.S. Senate to begin their argument that he should not be removed from office, President Donald Trump offered a preview of sorts.

Americans should turn on their televisions, he wrote on Twitter, and watch the attorneys make “our case against” his political antagonists, who he listed with a series of taunting nicknames.

What those who tuned in saw was something quite different.

When Trump’s legal team launched his defense at his impeachment trial on Saturday, they outlined a case far removed from his all-caps claims of a perfect phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart and denunciations of his political foes.

Instead they focused largely on what they cast as glaring holes in Democrats’ argument that Trump should be removed from office for his efforts to secure politically beneficial investigations from Ukraine’s government, and argued that the allegations against Trump did not justify ousting him in an election year.