Trump news: Ex-president will not appear at impeachment trial as legal team blast request as ‘PR stunt’

Jamie Raskin, lead Democratic impeachment manager in the Senate trial of Donald Trump, has challenged the former president to testify under oath in a letter sent on Thursday, further heating up the war of words between the two camps.

Lawyers of the former president responded to the letter by calling it a "public relations stunt", but they did not answer specifically on if Mr Trump would appear before the Senate to tesitify. "Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations against the 45th President of the United States, who is now a private citizen," they wrote.

But the legal camp later clarified that Mr Trump would not be appearing before the Senate. "The President will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding," said Jason Miller, a spokesperson for the former president.

This comes as the legal team were was accused of producing "14 pages of circuitous logic and rambling paeans to America" by MSNBC pundit Hayes Brown, who summarised their misspelled filing as "cringeworthy at best", but hit back by insisting the prosecution is "ill-advised" and "undemocratic".

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