President Trump's defense team is expecting to use only two to three hours on the Senate floor on Tuesday to finish laying out their case against impeachment, a source familiar with the legal team's thinking told NPR's Tamara Keith.
Trump's lawyers, which began their arguments Saturday, had 24 hours over three days to make their case — the same time given to the Democratic House impeachment managers who presented their arguments against the president last week.
Shortly before winding down Monday night's arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz addressed the elephant in the room: whether potential testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton would alter the course of the proceeding.
The New York Times reported Sunday evening that Bolton wrote in a forthcoming book that the president told him in August he wanted to continue withholding close to $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine until that country's government agreed to launch investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Dershowitz was the first member of the president's defense team to directly acknowledge how recent Bolton news had consumed Washington, as speculation raged over the Senate possibly calling him as a witness.
Bolton's possible firsthand account of the events at the heart of the impeachment trial? Not necessary, argued Dershowitz.
"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense," he said.
.jpg)
