“I suspect Trump’s lawyers will make better use of their time. I doubt they will even use all 24 hours allotted to them. “
they’ve already said they won’t take the full 24 hours ...
Thanks for watching from the beginning . I missed the first half hour or so..
They've sent mixed message on that, but generally, I agree, they're telegraphing they'll take less time than the House managers did.
Sekulow was asked directly, and he said we'll take all the time we need, and that the exact presentation is still quite fluid. There will be less repetition than from the House managers, but some of the defense is material outside of the four corners of the accusation - this is what "affirmative defense" is, by nature.
For example, to justify not engaging FBI or State department to deal with allegations of corruption in Ukraine - show how the FBI lied and cheated in an effort to get Trump, and how actors in the diplomatic corps were running interference to conceal ongoing corruption. No evidence of that sort is in the House managers portfolio, because the House was not after the truth, it was and is after Trump.
Congress is just as engaged in cover-up of corruption as the FBI and state department are.
Google selected impeachment headlines this morning:
Kaine: GOP senators should 'at least' treat Trump trial with seriousness of traffic court
Donald Trump impeachment trial: For Republicans, patriotism has left the Senate chamber
Notorious D.J.T. on Trial | The New York Times
Why neither side is really trying to win this Trump impeachment trial
Following the 24 hours each side, the process anticipates a motion by Trump to exclude evidence based on hearsay and other objections. After that, 16 hours of questions from Senators (the Senate used about 11 hours of this for Clinton), then 4 hours equally divided for closing arguments, then comes the time for motions for additional witnesses. I think the appetite for additional witnesses will be different then, than it is now.