Trump's lawyers will go into impeachment empty-handed because all his stories have 'fallen apart': ex-Justice Dept official

On Saturday's edition of MSNBC's "AM Joy," former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said that President Donald Trump's behavior in the Ukraine scandal is all but impossible to defend from articles of impeachment.

"If you were writing the related impeachment articles to this part of the scandal, what would they be?" asked anchor Joy Reid.

"They would be very simple," said Katyal. "The president abused the nation's trust. He put his interests above those of the American people with respect to our foreign policy with the Ukraine. The Congress had appropriated this money for our nation's interest. He withheld it for his own personal benefit. That's Article I. Article II is called obstruction of justice and it involves the fact that this president is not turning over any information to the White House — to the Congress and directing his members of Congress and his ambassadors not to testify."

"Many of those are in open rebellion, those ambassadors this week did testify despite what the president said because they believe that the Congress and the American people should have the truth," continued Katyal. "That's what Nixon was — the one of the articles of impeachment Nixon faced. I think it applies here. It's just those two articles. It's straightforward and simple. It's an open and shut case and honestly, I think I'm a pretty good lawyer, but if I had to defend the president here, I have no idea what I would say because he's tried four different stories, all of them have fallen completely apart."

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