Democrats face a crucial week in Trump’s impeachment trial

Republicans are likely to seek a swift end to proceedings unless witnesses can be called and the trial extended

As we enter the second week of arguments in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, the strategy from both the president’s legal team and Senate Republicans is very clear.

Both are likely to seek a quick end to proceedings if they can help it. White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who is leading Trump’s team, took just two hours to finish for the day on Saturday, and other members of the president’s team have made clear they will not hang around.

“I am not going to continue to go over and over and over again the evidence that [the Democrats] did not put before you, because we would be here for a lot longer than 24 hours,” said Jay Sekulow, Trump’s personal lawyer. Being succinct and not allowing slack arguments into their case is likely to help – plus the lawyers want to give the sense that the whole trial is nothing but an irritation for Trump.