President Trump’s impeachment trial began on Tuesday, January 16 as he faces two articles of impeachment for both abuse of power and obstruction of congress.

The first article, abuse of power, is due to him pressuring Ukraine to gain information on Joe Biden and his son to use against Biden in the upcoming election.  The second article is for obstruction of Congress for Trump having agencies, offices, and officials of the executive branch not comply with subpoenas without lawful cause.

In a Tweet from Jan. 16, Trump quoted a Fox News anchor Ingraham Angle when she said, “There is no crime here. I just think this whole thing should be rejected out of hand…Entertaining this impeachment is a joke.” 

Trump’s  defense team is saying that Trump did not abuse his power for personal political gain.  They are also claiming since he asked Ukraine to investigate corruption he did nothing wrong and Ukraine’s president was not pressured.  As well saying Ukraine was unaware of the aid, that was later released, being held back.

A floor vote from last week to named seven Democratic lawmakers as the official impeachment managers: Rep. Jason Crow (CO), Rep. Val B. Demings (FL), Rep. Sylvia R. Garcia (TX), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY), and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (CA) .  Impeachment managers would be the Democratic lawmakers who deliver the reports of impeachment to the Senate.