The lead Democratic prosecutor accused President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday of setting up a corrupt scheme to pressure Ukraine to help him win re-election this coming November.
Trump sounded a defiant note, telling reporters in Switzerland that Democrats did not have enough evidence to find him guilty and remove him from office.
In the opening argument for the prosecution after days of procedural wrangling, Representative Adam Schiff said Trump had pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son on unsubstantiated corruption charges last year.
In his dealings with Ukraine, Trump solicited foreign interference to improve his chances in this year's U.S. presidential election, Schiff said, laying out the main Democratic argument for why Trump abused his power and should be found guilty.
"To implement this corrupt scheme President Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into two discredited allegations that would benefit President Trump's 2020 presidential campaign," Schiff said.
Democrats argue that Trump was trying to find dirt on Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, and his son Hunter who had served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, to help the Republican president win a second term.