Trump impeachment: President 'brags' about obstructing Congress as Senate hears he used power to 'cheat' election

Trial begins with opening statements from House prosecutors summarising mountain of evidence from Congress

'I thought it was terrible' Trump says he doesn't think Bill Clinton should have been impeached

House impeachment managers delivered opening remarks during the US Senate trial into Donald Trump and his dealings with Ukraine, as Democrats blasted White House attorneys for presenting Fox News-style “histrionics" at the hearings.

Democratic impeachment manager Adam Schiff ​argued in his opening remarks the president's "misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box" and suggested that Americans "cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won" in 2020 after Mr Trump encouraged Ukraine to launch political investigations into one of his Democratic rivals, Joe Biden.​

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, another impeachment manager, also accused Republicans of “voting for a cover-up”, observing: “Only guilty people hide the evidence.”

The prosecution's marathon opening statements included clips from witness testimonies and, most damning, from the president himself, including his admission that he would accept politically damaging information on a rival candidate from a foreign country and would ask China to investigate the Bidens.

House impeachment managers, acting as the prosecution, each handled a different aspect of the charges against the president and the players involved, from Rudy Giuliani's influence and direction under the president to pressure Ukraine into an investigation, to the on-the-ground consequences of withholding military aid to Ukraine while it was in the middle of a ground war with Russia.

Looking on from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the president fired out dozens of retweets in support of his cause while insisting he was “making great progress” at the global summit, as a new poll makes bleak reading for his supporters ahead of 2020.

The president appeared to acknowledge his administrations' participation in the obstruction charges against him by telling reporters: "Honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material."

He also falsely claimed that Democrats leading his impeachment "don't talk about my conversation" with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenksky and that "they don't talk about my transcripts" that the president believes exonerate him.

Follow live coverage as it happened:

Key Points

• Trump attacks Greta Thunberg, Jerry Nadler and Lev Parnas at Davos
• New poll finds president losing to six Democratic contenders in 2020
• Senate blocks 11 key amendments to rules as trial gets underway
• Democrats complain process 'ass-backwards' and 'a cover-up'
• Budget Office forced to release Ukraine emails two minutes before deadline 

[22 January 2020 22:40 · Alex Woodward]

Mitch McConnell suggested the Senate break for 30 minutes for dinner starting at 6:30. So we're moving ahead with impeachment manager Val Demings.

She played a clip of Gordon Sondland’s testimony where he said Ukraine officials knew that their military aid was tied to whether they would pursue the investigation ordered by Trump.

She also played Fiona Hill's "drug deal" comment, reportedly said by John Bolton, about the scheme to get administration officials to meet with Ukraine, per Rudy Giuliani.

[22 January 2020 23:06 · Alex Woodward]

Impeachment manager Hakeem Jeffries is up, speaking to the administration's pivot that it was Ukraine, not Russia, involved in election interference.

Jeffries: "If there was any doubt about who benefits from this unfounded Russian-inspired conspiracy theory, Vladimir Putin made it clear when he said in November 3019, 'Thanks God no one is accusing us anymore of interfering in US elections. Now they're accusing Ukrainians.'"

[22 January 2020 23:25 · Alex Woodward]

Someone just yelled from the back of the Senate.

Justice Roberts had to call order.

[22 January 2020 23:31 · Alex Woodward]

An anti-abortion protest made some noise from the gallery.

Meanwhile:

[22 January 2020 23:38 · Alex Woodward]

Mitch McConnell is now breaking for 30 minutes, so we're wrapping up today's live coverage of the Trump administration.

Stay tuned with The Independent.