Democrats And Trump’s Lawyers Made Their Final Arguments In The Impeachment Trial

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial continued Monday with closing arguments from both legal teams, setting up a likely acquittal vote on Wednesday afternoon.

House Democrats and Trump’s lawyers had a total of four hours to make their cases before the trial wraps up. Though Trump had hoped to have the trial ended quickly — and before his State of the Union address Tuesday night — senators will take Tuesday off and vote on whether to remove him from office on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Trump was charged with two articles of impeachment by the House in December: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The charges relate to Trump’s decision to withhold vital military aid from Ukraine until the country agreed to open an investigation into one of his political rivals, Joe Biden, largely based on conspiracy theories. Trump then stonewalled Congress’s investigation of the Ukraine affair, preventing members of his administration from testifying and refusing to hand over documents to the House, leading to the obstruction charge.