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Trump rails about impeachment trial in tweetstorm and gets much of it wrong

"Most unfair & corrupt hearing in Congressional history!" the president posted.
Image: Donald Trump
President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House as he returns from Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

President Donald Trump raged against the Senate impeachment trial Thursday morning in a tweetstorm that lamented the process as "unfair" and "corrupt."

"The Democrat House would not give us lawyers, or not one witness, but now demand that the Republican Senate produce the witnesses that the House never sought, or even asked for?" Trump tweeted. "They had their chance, but pretended to rush. Most unfair & corrupt hearing in Congressional history!"

The post, one of eight tweets from Trump in 20 minutes, included multiple misleading assertions or falsehoods.

While Trump was not permitted to have an attorney present during the House Intelligence Committee hearings, a lawyer for House Republicans, Steve Castor, was allowed to question witnesses. In addition, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., invited Trump to have an attorney present for his committee's part of the investigation, but White House counsel Pat Cipollone declined.

Full coverage of President Donald Trump's impeachment trial

Five witnesses requested by Republicans testified in the proceedings. In the Intelligence Committee investigation, Republican-requested witnesses Tim Morrison, Trump's former top Russia adviser; Kurt Volker, Trump's former special envoy to Ukraine; and David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, all testified.

Democrats rejected GOP requests for testimony from former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and others, including the whistleblower whose inspector general's complaint triggered the impeachment inquiry.

In the Judiciary Committee, Castor and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley testified for the Republicans.

Regarding Trump's mention of witnesses, former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — two of the witnesses Democrats are clamoring to have testify before the Senate — were sought for testimony by House investigators. The White House ordered them not to comply.

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"No matter what you give to the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, it will never be enough!" Trump tweeted Thursday, claiming in another tweet that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., delivered a presentation Wednesday that "was loaded with lies and misrepresentations."

Wednesday marked the first day of opening arguments by the House impeachment managers. They outlined their case against Trump, pushed back against his defense and called on the Senate to allow for new witness testimony and to request additional Trump administration documents that have so far been withheld.