Impeachment Trial Highlights: Senators Grill House Managers and Trump’s Lawyers

Senate Democrats are making a final run at persuading at least a few GOP senators to call witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial as lawmakers grilled the defense team and House prosecutors in an attempt to shape the debate for a showdown vote later this week.

That next phase of the trial got under way Wednesday amid doubt about the outcome of a vote to subpoena former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton or others -- including former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and the unnamed whistle-blower who’s complaint launched the impeachment case.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is working behind the scenes to keep Republicans in line to reject a drive by Democrats to call witnesses in a pivotal vote as soon as that could come as soon as Friday. Defeating that motion would lead to a quick wrap-up of the trial before Trump’s State of the Union address next Tuesday.

That outcome was thrown into question by the disclosure that Bolton wrote in a still-unpublished book that the president directly linked giving aid to Ukraine to getting the country’s new president to announce a probe of Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Question of Motives

Democrats argued Trump’s motive was to help himself politically by tarnishing a serious challenger to his re-election.

Trumps defense lawyers sought to dismiss that allegation by arguing it doesn’t matter. Law professor Alan Dershowitz asserted that a president’s power is expansive and he can’t be impeached for taking actions that are partly motivated by a desire to help his political prospects.

Any testimony by Bolton is unlikely to change the outcome of the trail -- Trump’s acquittal. But calling witnesses would extend the proceedings and be potentially politically damaging to Trump and Senate Republicans.

Pressure Campaign

Under increased pressure from McConnell and the White House, the pool of potential Republican votes for fresh evidence continued to narrow. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican facing a tough re-election fight in November, said he’ll vote against witnesses.

3 GOP senators -- Susan Collins, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski -- have expressed interest in hearing from Bolton, and they’re being intensely lobbied by both sides, as are several others who haven’t committed one way or the other.

Crucial Information

Romney said Wednesday that Bolton is a crucial witness in deciding the impeachment case.

“I have a great deal of confidence in John Bolton,” Romney told reporters. He said Bolton could answer key questions such as what explanation Trump gave advisers when he decided to delay military aid for Ukraine, and even whether the “president himself” told them the aid was held “in order to encourage them to investigate the Bidens.”

The 1st question in Wednesday’s session came from Collins, co-signed by Murkowski and Romney, asking Trump’s counsel how they should consider various motives by Trump for his actions.

Trump lawyer Patrick Philbin answered that if there are mixed motives, for both policy and political reasons, “their case fails and you can’t possibly have impeachment.”.

Schiff said there is no way for the trial to be fair without witnesses, and said senators should hear from Bolton himself to determine whether he knows of Trump’s real motives.

Trump unleashed a series of tweets denigrating Bolton and warning Republicans against voting for witnesses.

The National Security Council also wrote to Bolton’s lawyer last week saying that his book manuscript “appears to contain significant amounts of classified information” and can’t be published unless that material is deleted.

Schumer blasted some Republicans who say they don’t want witnesses because it won’t change the outcome.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin became the 1st Democrat to break ranks and say he would vote to call Hunter Biden as a witness if U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial, deems him pertinent to the case.

Manchin is 1 of 3 Democrats who are being closely watched for indications they would vote to acquit Trump. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat, and Alabama Democrat Doug Jones also haven’t indicated whether they think Trump is guilty of the House’s two articles of impeachment.

The impeachment charges alleged that Trump wanted Ukraine to initiate an investigation of Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and his son to help with the president’s re-election campaign.

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