DONALD J TRUMP, YOU ARE HEREBY CHARGED WITH CRIMES AGAINST OUR CONSTITUTION

[kentuck]

AND THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

You are requested to put before the People any witnesses or evidence that may exculpate you from these charges.

It is not a "Witch Hunt" and it is not a "Hoax". It is a legal proceeding of the Constitution of the United States.

If you choose to not put forth any exculpatory evidence or witnesses, then the People have no choice but to presume guilt on your part.

No man is above the law. All Congressmen, Senators, and Presidents are "public servants" of the People and answer to the laws of our Constitution.

When they refuse to abide by these laws, they should forthwith be dismissed from the duties they swore to protect and defend.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. A trial (in Senate) REQUIRES Due Process, not during the investigation.

Regardless, the House made available opportunities for exculpatory witnesses to testify to the investigation.

There were none made available.

So it is definitely not fair to himself if he does not make witnesses available for his trial.
Nor is it fair to the People, who are (through the House managers) the prosecutors.

Due Process means being fair to both Defense and Prosecution, tipping to the Defense in many ways: Innocent until proven guilty, defense gets to see all the evidence before trial but does not have to provide evidence to the prosecution, and so on.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. we have at least 2 Senators in violation of their oath

A sane Senate would, at least, chastise McConnell and Graham for their public comments prejudging the upcoming impeachment trial.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. The uninformed will think it just Washington being Washington

and let Trump be Trump. I'm not sure even your headline would awaken them to recognize the gravity of the situation. It's like a significant portion of the population cannot comprehend magnitude.

[Harker]

4. I wonder if he can remember what 'exculpatory' means...

I should think so.

[40RatRod]

5. Would love to see the Chief Justice open the trial with that statement!

[Pepsidog]

6. That's what we all thought, but doesn't seem to be the case.

[NotASurfer]

7. I don't see any whitehouse.gov petitions along these lines

Maybe the Administration decrees them to be outside the scope of those petitions & deletes them immediately, but the 3rd paragraph there seems like it could translate as a petition calling for the Executive branch to comply with lawful subpoenas and requests for information and the last one could be a remedy for non-compliance

[kentuck]

8. Also, when they say the Democrats tried for two years with Mueller Report...

...to find something on Donald Trump, they need to be reminded that the Mueller investigation was a Republican creation. They are attempting to turn truth upon its head.