See where every senator stands on Trump’s impeachment

Legal filings to the Senate have laid out the arguments that will be made in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, where he faces two distinct allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The U.S. House voted Jan. 15 to charge the president with abuse of power over his pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden, using military aid to the country as leverage. Trump was also charged with obstructing Congress’ ensuing probe. The nearly party-line vote moved Trump’s impeachment from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic-run House to the Republican-majority Senate, where Trump expects acquittal, even as new evidence is raising fresh questions about his Ukraine dealings.

Trump’s legal team, responding to the Senate’s official summons for the trial, said the president “categorically and unequivocally” denies the charges of abuse and obstruction against him in a fiery response filed Saturday.

Ultimately, it’s up to the Senate to decide. A two-thirds vote on either charge is required to convict the president and remove him from office.

Late Monday night, as the senators prepared to debate and vote on Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules for the impeachment trial, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., tweeted that McConnell’s rules “are yet more evidence that he’s helping the White House perpetrate a cover-up.”

“The oath I took to be impartial means something to me, and I hope it does to at least 4 of my Republican colleagues as well—they may be our last chance for getting anything close to a fair trial,” Duckworth tweeted.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this month that at least four Republican senators would need to vote with Democrats on the impeachment rules to allow the Senate to subpoena witnesses and key documents.

See the latest results from AP’s surveys of senators on impeachment:

When the impeachment trial began Jan. 16, Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet caught up with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who had a copy of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors — A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump,” by Frank O. Bowman III, on his desk.

“It’s is a solemn, serious moment,” Durbin told the Sun-Times. “The Senate changes when we get into this constitutional responsibility. The presence of the chief justice just turns the place into a different room. You’re not in the same room where you do business every day. It’s a different place, different rules, different expectations. And it should be. I mean, there’s nothing more serious under the Constitution but to consider whether a president should be removed.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.