Trump impeachment - Senate prepares to hear opening arguments in trial
Trump impeachment - Senate prepares to hear opening arguments in trial

As U.S. President Donald Trump prepared on Tuesday to address the billionaires in Davos, the US Senate prepared to hear opening arguments in an impeachment trial that could remove Trump from the presidency, if not from his seemingly unassailable perch in the public eye.

For only the third time in history, prosecutors sent by the House of Representatives will rise on the Senate floor to charge the president with “high crimes and misdemeanors” and declare that he must be turned out of the White House.

Trump “is the framers’ worst nightmare come to life”, Adam Schiff, chair of the intelligence committee and the lead impeachment prosecutor, wrote in a brief filed Monday, referring to the authors of the US constitution, as reported by The Guardian.

Trump was impeached in a party-line vote on two articles, or charges, in the House last month, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, relating to accusations that he threatened US national security with his conduct towards Ukraine.