Donald Trump’s legal team has called the charges in the impeachment trial against him “brazen and unlawful”.

The US president’s team was responding to the Senate’s official summons for the trial ahead of opening arguments on Tuesday.

House Democrats said the president had betrayed public trust with behaviour that was the “worst nightmare” of the founding fathers.

“President Donald J Trump used his official powers to pressure a foreign government to interfere in a United States election for his personal political gain”, the House prosecutors wrote, “and then attempted to cover up his scheme by obstructing congress’s investigation into his misconduct”.

Mr Trump’s legal team said the president “categorically and unequivocally” denies the charges of abuse and obstruction against him. “This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away,” the president’s filing states.

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

The competing filings give a glimpse into the arguments both sides plan to make during the impeachment trial.

Their aim will be to make a strong enough case to persuade the 100 senators who will give the verdict and for the American public preparing for a presidential election in 10 months.

Senators swore an oath to do “impartial justice” as the chamber convenes to consider the two articles of impeachment approved by the House last month.

The House’s 111-page brief outlined the prosecutors’ narrative, beginning with Mr Trump’s phone call with Ukraine and relying on the private and public testimony of a dozen witnesses, consisting of ambassadors and national security officials at high levels of government, who raised concerns about the president’s actions.

The House managers wrote: “The only remaining question is whether the members of the Senate will accept and carry out the responsibility placed on them by the framers of our constitution and their constitutional oaths.”

Mr Trump’s team called the two articles of impeachment “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president”.

The US president’s team encouraged politicians to reject “poisonous partisanship” and “vindicate the will of the American people” by rejecting both articles of impeachment approved by the House.

Donald Trump denies knowing Lev Parnas 13 times

The Senate is still debating the ground rules of the trial, particularly the question of whether new witnesses will be permitted as fresh evidence emerges of Mr Trump’s actions with Ukraine that led to impeachment proceedings.

New information from Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is being incorporated in the House case.

At the same time, Senate Democrats want to call John Bolton, the former national security adviser, and other potential eyewitnesses, after the White House blocked officials from appearing in the House.