Donald Trump's alleged “quid pro quo” with Ukraine was “in the public interest” if it helped his re-election prospects, the President’s defence has told the Senate impeachment trial.
The bombshell claim — which left Democrats stunned — marked a striking shift from Mr Trump’s insistence he had “perfect” dealings with Kiev.
He has repeatedly denied freezing a US military aid package to the eastern European country to pressure its government into investigating his Democrat rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
“If a President does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,” argued former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.
“Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest,” he added. The change in strategy was designed to pour more cold water on Democrat claims that Mr Trump abused his position as politicians pondered a key vote tomorrow on whether to call more witnesses.
If Republicans vote along party lines and block any new testimony, it is almost certain they will use their majority in the upper chamber of Congress to swiftly acquit the President.
Attempting to bring proceedings to a close, both the White House and Republican leaders in the Senate last night tried to discredit revelations by former national security adviser John Bolton, who reportedly contradicts Mr Trump’s defence with claims in a new book that there was a quid pro quo.
Some moderate Republicans have suggested they were interested in hearing Mr Bolton’s testimony at the trial.
Playing down the importance of Mr Bolton’s alleged claims, Professor Dershowitz said that even if there was a quid pro quo that would not necessarily be grounds for impeachment.
“The only thing that would make a quid pro quo unlawful is if the ‘quo’ were, in some way, illegal,” he added.
Mr Trump, who is charged with abuse of power and obstruction of justice, is hoping to be cleared before his State of the Union address next Tuesday.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was said to be quietly confident he had succeeded in heading off threats by some Republicans to vote to hear more witnesses.
Republican senator John Barrasso predicted the trial would be over by tomorrow night.
