US President Donald Trump has rejected the Democratic-led House of Representatives' impeachment charges and called for their immediate dismissal by the Republican-led Senate in a memo offering a legal and political case against his removal.
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The 116-page Trial Memorandum sought to undercut charges that the Republican president abused his power and obstructed Congress, and constituted Trump's first comprehensive defence before his Senate trial begins in earnest on Tuesday.
"The Senate should reject the Articles of Impeachment and acquit the president immediately," the memo concluded.
Separately, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell put forward rules that could lead to a quick impeachment trial for Trump, with no guarantee that witnesses or new evidence would be allowed.
Under the resolution, which could face a vote as early as Tuesday, lawyers for Trump could move early in the proceedings to ask senators to dismiss all charges, a senior Republican leadership aide said, a motion that would likely fail.
Trump, only the fourth of 45 American presidents to face the possibility of being ousted by impeachment, is charged with abusing the powers of his office by asking Ukraine to investigate a Democratic political rival, Joe Biden, and obstructing a congressional inquiry into his conduct.
Democrats say Trump abused his power by withholding US military assistance to Ukraine as part of a pressure campaign and obstructed Congress by refusing to hand over documents and barring administration officials from testifying, even when subpoenaed by House investigators.
Trump's defence argued neither charge constituted a crime or impeachable offence, that he was within his rights as president to make decisions about foreign policy and what information to give Congress, and that the House pursued a flawed and one-sided process before impeaching him on December 18.
The memo's executive summary asserted that the House Democrats' "novel theory of 'abuse of power'" was not an impeachable offence and supplanted the Constitutional standard of "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
It rejected the obstruction of Congress charge as "frivolous and dangerous," saying the president exercised his legal rights by resisting congressional demands for information, also known as subpoenas.
While the Republican-controlled Senate is highly unlikely to remove Trump from office, it is important for him to try to diminish the Democratic accusations to limit political damage to his bid for a second term.
Seeking to show he is still conducting presidential business despite the trial, Trump left late Monday for Davos, Switzerland, to join global leaders at the World Economic Forum.
As a result, he will be in the Alps when the Senate on Tuesday engages in a potentially bruising battle over whether witnesses should be allowed to testify in the trial and whether new documents could be introduced, as Democrats wish.
The resolution McConnell unveiled on Monday would give House Democratic prosecutors and Trump lawyers 48 hours, evenly split, to present their arguments over a maximum of four days.
It drew immediate criticism from Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer, who accused McConnell of failing to stick to the rules used during Bill Clinton's 1998 impeachment, calling it "nothing short of a national disgrace."
"It's clear Senator McConnell is hell-bent on making it much more difficult to get witnesses and documents and intent on rushing the trial through," Schumer said in a statement.
Australian Associated Press