The United States Senate begins on Tuesday the third political trial in the history of this country , with the revision of the rules that will regulate the debate of the accusations against President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for the alleged pressure on Ukraine to initiate an investigation of its political rival, former vice president Joe Biden.
From Davos, Switzerland, Trump has denounced that the process is “a farce,” while Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who led the accusations against him, said Republicans “ have chosen to cover up the president , instead of honoring his oath. to the Constitution. "
"Embarrassingly, this false proposal does not even allow admitting the House records as evidence in the trial," Pelosi complained in a statement.
Pelosi's criticism responds to the rules proposed by the Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, which will be voted on Tuesday when the trial begins.
The session will begin at noon with the vote on the rules of debate proposed by the leader of the Republican majority, Mitch McConnell.
According to this calendar, each party will have 24 hours to present their arguments during the trial, but the time will be confined to two business days.
The arguments will begin on Wednesday at 1 pm, according to the rules established by McConnell, which will result in several long days for members of the Senate jury.
First, it will be the seven Democratic congressmen who serve as trial prosecutors, among which the Spanish Sylvia García, who is in charge of presenting the details of the charges against Trump.
Then, the president's defense team, where Ken Starr is an independent ex-lawyer who persecuted Bill Clinton, and Alan Dershowitz, a famous constitutional law scholar, will argue, according to The New York Times, that Trump simply acted in based on the best interests of the United States and that the charges constitute little more than a political attack by the Democrats.
Trump: "It's embarrassing"
From Davos, Switzerland, where he participates in the World Economic Forum, Trump called this process a "farce . "
"It's a witch hunt that has been going on for years and, frankly, it's embarrassing," the president said in statements reproduced by NBC News.
His legal team on Monday presented a letter stating that "all this is a dangerous misrepresentation of the Constitution that the Senate should condemn quickly and outright." In addition, Trump's lawyers added that "the charges should be rejected and the president should be acquitted immediately."
On the Democratic side, they warned that McConnell's proposal is a "cover-up."
"It is clear that Senator McConnell is determined to make it more difficult to obtain witnesses and documents and tries to expedite the trial," said Chuck Schumer, a Democratic leader in the Senate, who also called the proposed rules of "national misfortune."
Today, it is only the third presidential political trial in the history of the United States, and occurs a few weeks before the start of the primaries for the 2020 elections, with four Democratic senators running for the nomination of their party.
The president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who led the accusations against Trump, will not be at the start of the process, as she heads a congressional delegation that travels to Poland and Israel to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz's release to the end of World War II.
Edited by Felipe Gálvez, with information from AP and AFP
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