(Bloomberg) -- Lead House manager Adam Schiff previewed some of the defenses he expects Donald Trump’s lawyers to deploy when they begin to present their case Saturday in the president’s Senate impeachment trial.

Here are the latest developments:

Schiff Seeks to Pre-Empt Trump Defense (6 a.m.)

Schiff closed the House Democrats’ case Friday night by predicting that Trump’s defenders would talk about an unfair process, Joe Biden, the whistle-blower and corruption in Ukraine -- instead of responding to the impeachment charges against the president.

“If they couldn’t get Ukraine to smear the Bidens, they want to use this trial to do it instead,” Schiff said. “So let’s call Hunter Biden. Let’s smear the Bidens.”

Trump’s lawyers will get their first crack when the Senate convenes at 10 a.m. Saturday. Attorney Jay Sekulow said that “with three hours it’s probably going to be a bit of an overview” of the fuller case the defense will present when the trial resumes on Monday.

Just as the House managers did, the defense will have up to 24 hours over three days to make its case. “If we decide we need the full time we will take it,” Sekulow said.

Schiff predicted that Trump’s lawyers would say House Democrats “hate the president.” That argument is “another of the myriad forms of ‘please do not consider what the president did,’” the California Democrat said.

“I only hate what he’s done to this country. I grieve for what he’s done to this country,” Schiff said.

Catch Up on Impeachment Coverage

Key Events

  • Here is House Democrats’ web page containing documents related to the impeachment trial. House Democrats’ impeachment brief is here. Trump’s initial reply is here, and his lawyers’ trial brief is here.
  • The House impeachment resolution is H.Res. 755. The Intelligence Committee Democrats’ impeachment report is here.
  • Gordon Sondland’s transcript is here and here; Kurt Volker’s transcript is here and here. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s transcript is here and here; the transcript of Michael McKinley, former senior adviser to the secretary of State, is here. The transcript of David Holmes, a Foreign Service officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, is here.
  • The transcript of William Taylor, the top U.S. envoy to Ukraine, is here and here. State Department official George Kent’s testimony is here and here. Testimony by Alexander Vindman can be found here, and the Fiona Hill transcript is here. Laura Cooper’s transcript is here; Christopher Anderson’s is here and Catherine Croft’s is here. Jennifer Williams’ transcript is here and Timothy Morrison’s is here. The Philip Reeker transcript is here. Mark Sandy’s is here.

--With assistance from Billy House.

To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net;Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, John Harney

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