Collins and Murkowski, along with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), offered the first questions of the day. They asked Trump’s lawyers how the Senate should respond if it could be determined that Trump had more than one motive in withholding the military aid to Ukraine.

Philbin argued that House managers had to argue that there was no possible public interest in an investigation into the Bidens.

“Once you’re into mixed-motive land, it’s clear that their case fails. There can’t possibly be an impeachable offense at all,” Philbin said.

In response to another question from Romney about the specific date Trump ordered the hold on security assistance to Ukraine, and whether he gave a reason for doing so, Trump’s defense team again struggled to say.

“I don’t think there is evidence in the record of a specific date,” Philbin said, only pointing to testimony that U.S. officials were aware of the hold in early July.

But Romney, a Trump critic who has expressed an interest in hearing from witnesses, wasn’t satisfied with that answer.

“I’d like more information than they were apparently able to give, given the fact that that information was not in the record,” he told HuffPost on Wednesday.