Schumer seeks Bolton, Mulvaney testimony in Senate impeachment trial

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed calling former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as witnesses at an impeachment trial for President Donald Trump in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday.

The offer is intended as a signal that Democrats are seeking an evidentiary trial, not intending to simply rely on the House investigation.

Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed that the Senate subpoena four people who are close to the president or are expected to know about the delay of about $400 million in military aid to Ukraine: Mulvaney; Bolton; Robert Blair, senior adviser to Mulvaney; and Michael Duffey, associate director for national security at the Office of Management and Budget. Schumer proposed that each side question witnesses for four hours each.

House Democrats previously subpoenaed all four officials, who did not testify.

Schumer added that Democrats “would of course be open” to testimony of anyone else with “direct knowledge” of aid to Ukraine if House prosecutors or the president’s lawyers were to request it.

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McConnell, R-Ky., has indicated that he hopes he has the support of 51 senators for a speedy resolution. He told Sean Hannity of Fox News last week that he and the president’s counsel were working closely and that he hoped that there would not be “a single Republican who votes for either of these articles of impeachment.”

Democrats on Sunday pushed back at GOP senators who they said appeared to have pre-judged the proceedings.

“Senate Democrats believe strongly, and I trust Senate Republicans agree, that this trial must be one that is fair, that considers all of the relevant facts, and that exercises the Senate’s ‘sole Power of Impeachment’ under the Constitution with integrity and dignity,” Schumer wrote to McConnell. “The trial must be one that not only hears all of the evidence and adjudicates the case fairly; it must also pass the fairness test with the American people.”

Schumer also proposed that the Senate issue subpoenas for electronic communications and memoranda of relevant officials in the White House, the budget office and the State Department in a “narrowly drawn” request that is “neither burdensome or time-consuming.”

House Democrats’ investigation said security aid for Ukraine and a White House call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy were predicated on an announcement by Zelenskiy of an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Schumer and McConnell are expected to meet early this week to discuss how a Senate trial would work. If they reach no agreement, the Senate would vote at each step of the process. Each vote would require the support of 51 senators.

Republicans control 53 seats, but several — including Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah — have indicated they want a full trial.

Schumer proposed that the Senate proceedings begin on Monday, Jan. 6, with senators’ being sworn in as jurors and Chief Justice John Roberts’ being sworn in as presiding officer ‪the next day.

The House impeachment managers, who would effectively act as prosecuting attorneys, would be recognized ‪on Jan. 9‬ to present their case for a maximum of 24 hours, followed by the president’s counsel for the same amount of time.

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Schumer says his proposal is modeled after the resolutions setting up the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton’s in 1999. However, there were two resolutions that year, with the second — which was adopted along party lines — deciding the witnesses and more controversial issues. Schumer has proposed passing one resolution.

Doug Andres, a spokesman for McConnell, would not respond directly to the proposal Sunday. “Leader McConnell has made it clear he plans to meet with Leader Schumer to discuss the contours of a trial soon. That timeline has not changed,” he said.

source: nbcnews.com