Trump Defense: 'Nothing In The Bolton Revelations' Rises To The Level Of Impeachment

As President Trump's legal team pressed the case for acquittal on Monday, they repeatedly made two points: the charges against Trump do not meet the constitution's criteria for impeachment. And if the president is removed from office for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, it will set a "dangerous" precedent.

"You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using words like quid pro quo," said one of Trump's lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, calling the charges "vague, indefinable."

Said Dershowitz on the impeachment charges sent to the Senate by House Democrats: "This is a realistic threat to all future presidents."

Trump's lawyers maintain that the president was legally justified in freezing military assistance to Ukraine and that the case against Trump presented by Democrats in the Senate last week does not constitute a crime and thus cannot trigger removal from office, a notion that has received strenuous skepticism from legal scholars.