Exactly right. The operative word being “appeared”. With the case presented by the Trump legal team over the last 2 days there should be no doubt that the current Articles of Impeachment are on their face —. Not proven beyond a reasonable doubt and it would be unconstitutional for any sitting SENATOR —. Sitting as a jury member in an impeachment trial to cast a vote for conviction given the case as presented to them.
Now that being said. If the House want to launch new impeachment hearing in their various committees of jurisdiction they are certainly free to do so as long at they remain the majority party in the house.
Slow rolling money to a foreign country in order to achieve a political objective is the OBLIGATION of any US President. In the future President Trump should just make a public statement that funds are being slow rolled —- not denied just slow rolled. due to ongoing corruption investigation—.
If congress chooses to force the President to provide the funding before they deadline date they can do so with a veto proof majority vote. Absent a veto proof majority vote to override executive privilege —- I would argue that the President has every right to withhold funding And the internal debate on the merits of such withholding SHOULD remain a matter of confidentiality otherwise it could and would affect the candidness of the arguments within the internal advisory team.
So far as I can understand from public information, President Trump did NOT tell Congress he was withholding/delaying the funding. Therein lies the problem since it is the job of the Congress to vote/approve the funding. In the end after the President said the money would go forward in mid Sept., Congress had to rush to pass new legislation to allow Ukraine to use that money in Fiscal Year 2020 which was going to start in 2 weeks, October 1, 2019.