Democrats press for a full and fair trial of Donald Trump as leading Republican Senators maintain their blockade of witnesses and documents.
The trial formally opened on Thursday with the swearing-in of the 100 Senators, the jurors in the trial over which Chief Justice John Roberts is presiding. The House managers, effectively the prosecutors, filed a 104-page document on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Trump’s defense team responded with six pages avoiding the evidence while declaring Democrats are trying to undo Trump’s 2016 victory and prevent his 2020 re-election.
See also TrumpWatch, Day 1,094: Founders’ “Worst Nightmare” — House Sets Out Trump’s Abuse of Power
The first major development will be on Tuesday, when the chamber votes on the rules for the trial.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said firmly that he will not abide by the oath to be an impartial juror, instead working with the White House for a quick process in which Trump is not convicted. To achieve this, McConnell is refusing witnesses such as former National Security Advisor John Bolton, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Mulvaney’s top aide Robert Blair, and Michael Duffey, the top political appointee at the Office of Management and Budget.
Bolton described the campaign by Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, pressing Ukraine for investigations to tarnish Presidential candidate Joe Biden and to cover up Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US election, as a “drug deal”. Mulvaney, Blair, and Duffey — all of whom obeyed White House orders to defy subpoenas in House impeachment hearings — implemented Trump’s freeze of security assistance until Kyiv complied.
McConnell will succeed in the blockade unless 4 of the 53 Republican senators join Democrats in insisting on the witnesses and documents.
House managers appeared on Sunday news shows to press for the evidence, ensuring a fair trial. Rep. Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, explained.
If the Senate decides, if Senator McConnell prevails and there are no witnesses, it will be the first impeachment trial in history that goes to conclusion without witnesses.
The threshold issue here is, will there be a fair trial? Will the senators allow the House to call witnesses to introduce documents?
Schiff said the White House effort at a blackout is so extensive that the CIA and National Security Agency are not providing information on Ukraine, including material that may be relevant to the trial: “We are calling on the intelligence community to resist pressure from the Administration.”
Defying Trump’s ongoing efforts — including the order to defy subpoenas, which led to the obstruction of justice charge — House Democrats ensured that new evidence came out last week. This included the documents and testimony of Lev Parnas, the Giuliani business associate who met Ukrainian officials, establishing that Trump directed the campaign for investigations.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also highlighted last week’s Government Accountability Office report that found Trump broke the law in withholding $391 million of security assistancee for Kiev.
See also TrumpWatch, Day 1,092: Government Office — Trump Broke Law With Ukraine Aid Freeze
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries echoed Schiff, “The most important thing is that the American people deserve a fair trial. The Constitution deserves a fair trial. Our democracy deserves a fair trial. And we believe that a fair trial involves witnesses. It involves evidence. It involves documents.”
Republican Senators countered with a circular argument. If Democrats are seeking to present new evidence, that proves their existing case is weak — and if the case is weak, the Democrats should not allowed to question witnesses and table documents.
Sen. John Cornyn said:
If the House isn’t prepared to go forward with the evidence that they produced in the impeachment inquiry, maybe they ought to withdraw the articles of impeachment and start over again. This isn’t the Senate’s responsibility to make the case.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, a House manager and chair of the Judiciary Committee, responded, “Any Republican senator who says there should be no witnesses or even that witnesses should be negotiated is part of the cover-up.”
