Senators Grill Trump’s Lawyers, House Managers in New Phase of Impeachment Trial

The Senate began Wednesday’s session, which will provide eight hours for senators’ questions for Trump’s defense team and the House prosecutors. The questions will continue for up to eight hours on Thursday as well. Senators will submit their questions in writing to U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who will read them out loud, alternating between Republican and Democratic questions. Roberts asked the defense and prosecution to limit their answers to five minutes each. Democrats are likely to use their questions to highlight the need to call witnesses, especially former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton. Senators on Wednesday will begin the first of two days questioning House managers and Donald Trump’s defense lawyers, before the president’s impeachment trial moves to the pivotal question of whether to call witnesses to testify. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is shifting to questions from senators, a pivotal juncture as Republicans lack the votes to block witnesses and face a potential setback in their hope of ending the trial with a quick acquittal. Despite Trump’s defense team’s plea for it to “end now,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately told senators he doesn’t yet have the votes to brush back Democratic demands for witnesses now that revelations from John Bolton, the former national security adviser, have roiled the trial. Republican senators are trying to figure out a way to deal with fallout from Bolton’s forthcoming book, which provides a potential eyewitness account of Trump’s actions at the heart of the impeachment charges. But ideas being floated are fizzling almost as soon as they arise — among them, a witness “swap” with Democrats or issuing a subpoena for Bolton’s manuscript. GOP senators are sternly warned by party leaders that calling Bolton as a witness could entangle the trial in lengthy legal battles and delay Trump’s expected acquittal. One key Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, gave fresh momentum Wednesday to a one-for-one witness deal saying it’s “very important that there be fairness, that each side be able to select a witness or two.” But Democrats dismissed those offers, especially as Republicans want to draw Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, deeper into the proceedings. “It’s irrelevant. It’s a distraction,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. Bolton writes in a forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it helped with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden. That assertion, if true, would undercut a key defense argument and go to the heart of one of the two articles of impeachment against the president. “I think Bolton probably has something to offer us,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Trump disagreed in a tweet Wednesday in which he complained that Bolton after he left the White House, “goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security.” The White House on Wednesday sent a letter to Bolton’s attorney objecting to “significant amounts of classified information” in the manuscript, including at the Top Secret level. The former national security adviser and his attorney have insisted that the book does not contain any classified information. The finding could delay the book’s publication if Bolton is forced to revise the draft. Bolton left the White House last September and says he resigned. Trump says he was fired. The uncertainty about witnesses arises days before crucial votes on the issue. In a Senate split 53-47 in favor of Republicans, at least four GOP senators must join all Democrats to reach the 51 votes required to call witnesses, decide whom to call or do nearly anything else in the trial. Several Republicans apparently are ready to join Democrats in calling witnesses. One Democrat, the centrist Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said he’d wouldn’t have a problem hearing from Hunter Biden, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, but doubted it will happen. The witness swaps seem likely to fail as most Republican senators don’t want to call Bolton and most Democrats would rather avoid dragging the Bidens further into the impeachment proceedings. The Bidens were a focus of defense arguments though no evidence of wrongdoing has emerged. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm QUICKTAKE ON SOCIAL: Follow QuickTake on Twitter: twitter.com/quicktake Like QuickTake on Facebook: facebook.com/quicktake Follow QuickTake on Instagram: instagram.com/quicktake Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2FJ0oQZ Email us at [email protected] QuickTake by Bloomberg is a global news network delivering up-to-the-minute analysis on the biggest news, trends and ideas for a new generation of leaders.