Trump’s legal team slams impeachment charges as ‘brazen and unlawful’

President Donald Trump's legal team has strongly dismissed the upcoming impeachment trial by the US Senate as unconstitutional and "dangerous."

The defense team made the remark in a statement on Saturday after formally addressing the merits of the two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — that the Democratic-led House approved late last year.

"President Trump categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation in both articles of impeachment," the statement read.

The legal team said the articles of impeachment against Trump "are a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president."

The defense added, "This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election.”

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to send formal impeachment charges to the Senate, a move that launched the trial in the upper chamber.

Trump impeachment articles delivered to Senate

Articles of impeachment charging US President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are delivered to the Senate.

Lawmakers voted 228 to 193 to give the Senate the task of putting Trump on trial on charges of abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine for personal political gain and of obstruction of Congress for blocking testimony and documents sought by Democratic lawmakers.

The Senate trial is set to launch on the chamber floor on Tuesday.

Trump s threat to national security 

On Saturday, House Democrats formally made their case for why Trump should be removed from office by the Senate in the trial.  The House impeachment managers filed to the Senate their trial brief, a document laying out the rationale for the two articles of impeachment the lower chamber has passed. 

They called the Senate to "eliminate the threat that the President poses to America's national security."

"History will judge each Senator's willingness to rise above partisan differences, view the facts honestly, and defend the Constitution," the managers wrote. "The outcome of these proceedings will determine whether generations to come will enjoy a safe and secure democracy in which the President is not a king, and in which no one, particularly the President, is above the law."

A two-thirds majority vote would be needed in the Senate to remove the president from office. With Republicans in control of the upper chamber, Trump’s acquittal in a trial seems certain.

House Democrats launched the inquiry against Trump in September after an unknown whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

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