Last weekend, news broke that John Bolton's still-unpublished manuscript directly contradicts President Donald Trump's argument that he never tied Ukraine aid to the investigations he pushed.

Tuesday, his attorneys tried to wave that all off:

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow: Newspaper reports and allegations in an unsourced — maybe this is in somebody's book who's no longer at the White House.

Sekulow: Are you going to allow proceedings on impeachment to go from a New York Times report about someone that says what they hear in a manuscript?

Sekulow: Even if everything in there was true, it constitutionally doesn't rise to that level.

Since Trump never committed a crime, he can't be impeached, his legal team said. And as they concluded opening arguments Tuesday at the Senate Impeachment Trial, Sekulow portrayed Trump as a victim, detailing a long list of grievances:

"Crossfire Hurricane."

"Lisa Page."

"Agent Strzok."

"The Steele Dossier."

"James Comey."

"Bob Mueller."

"And the Bidens."

Trump's team argued that his actions toward Ukraine fell under his prerogative to set foreign policy.

And again, they resorted to pointing at the calendar:

"You are being asked to remove a duly elected president of the United States, and you're being asked to do it in an election year," Sekulow said.

"Why not trust the American people with this decision?" Trump attorney Pat Cipollone said, arguing for leaving a decision on Trump's fate as president to voters in November.

And just as the Democrats had done, Trump's team made use of old videotape from the Bill Clinton impeachment to play gotcha with the other side.

"By these actions, you would undo the free election that expressed the will of the American people in 1996," Zoe Lofgren, now an impeachment manager, said during the Clinton impeachment.

Now the trial enters into a new question-and-answer phase, where senators can submit questions in writing.

Then comes the pivotal moment when senators will decide whether to allow Bolton, and possibly others, to testify, as Democrats have lobbied.

"You simply cannot have a fair trial without witnesses," Impeachment Manager Adam Schiff said at a news conference.

Still unclear as of this writing is whether four Republicans will agree, giving the measure enough votes to pass.

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FURTHER IMPEACHMENT COVERAGE

Impeachment Managers Make Case for Convicting Trump for Abuse of Power

Democrats Appeal for GOP to Help Convict Trump in Day 2 of Senate Impeachment Trial

Sen. Gillibrand Speaks On the Impeachment Process inside the Senate Chamber

Democrats Wrap Up Opening Arguments in Senate Impeachment Trial

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries's Star Is Rising as He Makes His Case in the Impeachment Trial

McConnell Allows House Evidence to be Included in Trump Impeachment Trial