With admirable poise given the explosions around them, President Trump’s lawyers began their second day of defense with a point-by-point dissection of the case against their client.

They calmly focused on the transcript of Trump’s July 25 call with the president of Ukraine, with Jay Sekulow saying it involved no “violation of an oath.”

ADAM GOODMAN: SIX GOP SENATORS WHO HOLD THE CARDS IN TRUMP'S SENATE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL

Ken Starr, in a learned but too-long presentation on the history of impeachment, called out Speaker Nancy ­Pelosi’s “runaway House” and said the partisan product she ­produced was “dripping with fundamental process ­violations.”

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There was more, and it was all solid stuff that, on any other day, might have been a final nail in the Democrats’ teetering case. Unfortunately for the defense, Monday already had been claimed by John Bolton, and he wasn’t even in the room.

Bolton had instead sent a thunderbolt by authoring “The Room Where It Happened,” a clever book title surely lifted from a scene and song in the Broadway hit, “Hamilton.”

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How fitting — and inevitable — that history, politics and theater would collide during the impeachment of Donald Trump.

It was also inevitable that Bolton would come back to haunt Trump. Brutally fired after just 17 months as national security adviser, he is now firing back in sensational fashion.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING MICHAEL GOODWIN'S COLUMN IN THE NEW YORK POST