Donald Trump

Donald Trump has lashed out at lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff, again calling him “mentally deranged”, as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell claims to have seen off the threatened Republican rebellion on subpoenaing new witnesses and hopes to press ahead with the president’s acquittal on Friday after a final question-and-answer session in the upper chamber today.

Mr Schiff ripped into the president's defence team after the president's lawyer Alan Dershowitz argued that his client couldn't be impeached for an action he thought might get him re-elected.

"It's astonishing on the floor of this body someone would make that argument", Mr Schiff said. "It didn't begin that way in the beginning of the president's defence. What we have seen over the last couple of days is a descent into constitutional madness because that way madness lies."

Mr Schiff also was furious with Senate Republican efforts to attack and name the whistle-blower whose report of Mr Trump's 25 July phone call is at the heart of the impeachment charges. Chief Justice John Roberts, who presides over the trial, refused to ask a question submitted by Senator Rand Paul that the chief justice believed would out the whistle-blower and other national security staffers.

The Senate could vote to acquit the president on Friday, despite Democrat attempts to inject a witness deposition process, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mr Trump can't be acquitted "if you don't have a trial."

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

E Jean Carroll, who accused Mr Trump of raping her in the 1990s, is requesting a DNA sample from the president to determine whether it matches genetic material she wore. Lawyers for the columnist — who filed a defamation suit against Mr Trump last year after he said she was lying about the allegation — sent a notice to the president's attorneys demanding a sample be returned by 2 March.

Meanwhile, US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross is in hot water after saying during an interview with Fox Business, with a staggering absence of basic compassion, that China being struck by the coronavirus “will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America”.

The president said all "only five" people have contracted the virus in the US and are "all in good recovery", though a sixth case was confirmed in Chicago on Thursday. He spent his afternoon in Michigan at a White House event celebrating passage of the USMCA trade deal before a campaign rally in Iowa.

In a further embarrassing development for the president, a section of his US-Mexico border wall – which he once promised would be “impenetrable” – has been blown over in El Centro, California, after being hit by strong desert winds.