Trump sends his first defense in impeachment trial

The team of lawyers representing U.S. President Donald Trumpdelivered the Republican's first defense in the impeachment process on Saturday, 18. Earlier, representatives appointed by the House of Representatives present, in a memo, the denunciation to senators who will judge whether Trump abused office by using presidential prerogatives for his own benefit.

In the six-page defense, the team of lawyers alleges that the charges are "a dangerous attack on americans' right to vote freely." The president's representatives also claim that the impeachment process is a "blatantly illegal" attempt to annul the 2016 elections and interfere in the election that will take place this year.

Lawyers do not deny that Trump asked Ukraine'sPresident Vladimir Zelesnky to investigate the family of former vice president and now democratic pre-candidate for the White House, Joe Biden. The president says that no law has been broken and that he just wanted to help rid ukraine's corruption.

The impeachment process was brought in by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shortly after the case went public in September 2019. Several hearings with witnesses, closed and open to the public, showed how Trump and his top aides, as well as his personal lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, are in charge to pressure Ukraine.

In late December, Congress approved impeachment and sent the case to the Senate,where Trump's trial for political crimes of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress began.

The charge of abuse of power says Trump froze military aid worth $400 million to Ukraine and blocked an official visit to the White House for Zelensky to launch an investigation into Biden's son Hunter for corruption or just conduct a public pronouncement on the subject. The obstruction of justice complaint says the president did not cooperate with congressional investigations and banned his administration's officials from testifying.

Trump says he suffers a "witch hunt" and that the phone call that led to his impeachment was "perfect," but an accountability agency linked to Congress and not to a political party, released a report on Thursday 16 saying that the president violated congressional budget control and repayment law by overgoing deputies' approval of military aid to The Ukrainian for "political reasons."