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Gretchen Frazee
By —

Gretchen Frazee

WATCH: Trump impeachment trial — Jan. 27

Politics

President Donald Trump’s lawyers will spend several hours Monday laying out the heart of their defense in the president’s impeachment trial.

The impeachment trial is expected to resume at 1 p.m. ET. Watch live in the video player.

The defense team, which hopes to convince Republican senators not to call any witnesses, face a new hurdle in this next phase of the Senate impeachment trial.

In an unpublished manuscript of his upcoming book, former national security adviser John Bolton said Trump told him he wanted to keep U.S. aid to Ukraine on hold until that country agreed to investigate his political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The revelation was first reported by The New York Times and later confirmed to the Associated Press.

The accusation undercuts one of the defense’s key arguments. They have said Trump did not link the aid to his request for investigations. Democrats and Trump’s own ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, have said there was a connection to the aid, or a “quid pro quo.”

The allegation is one of the key accusations in the first article of impeachment–abuse of power–that the House of Representatives approved in December. Trump is also being charged with obstruction of Congress.

The Senate must now decide whether to acquit Trump of the charges or convict him and remove him from office.

Trump’s defense team began arguments on Saturday but only presented for two hours, saying they would lay out the majority of their case Monday.

The president’s lawyers have argued he did “absolutely nothing wrong” and accused Democrats of trying to remove him from the ballot in the upcoming presidential election.

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Gretchen Frazee
By —

Gretchen Frazee

Gretchen Frazee is a producer for the PBS NewsHour.

@gretchenfrazee

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