Senate rejects Democratic effort to subpoena acting White House chief of staff Mulvaney for testimony in Trump’s impeachment trial

Trump’s impeachment managers made little secret Tuesday that they’d rather put House Democrats on trial than Trump.

They repeatedly alleged mistreatment of Trump in his impeachment, rather than dwelling upon the evidence against him.

But in one instance, one of them badly overreached.

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The Senate rejected the Democratic amendment to subpoena Blair and Duffey.

The amendment, like those that came before it, was rejected on a 53-to-47 vote.

The Senate is now in a brief recess, with Democrats readying a seventh amendment for when the chamber returns.

The Senate once again voted to reject a Democratic amendment on a 53-to-47 vote. This amendment would have allowed the chamber to subpoena key Defense Department documents related to the impeachment inquiry.

The impeachment managers are now outlining the case for their sixth amendment, which would allow for subpoenas to be issued for the testimony of two other Trump administration officials, Blair and Duffey.

“As plentiful evidence confirms, officials throughout the government were stumped — literally stumped — about why the freeze was happening,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Tex.), one of the impeachment managers, said. “They were thwarted when they tried to get explanations from Blair and Duffey. Consistent with President Trump’s effort to hide all evidence, Blair and Duffey have defied the House’s subpoenas at the president’s direction.”

The Senate reconvened Tuesday night to consider the fifth amendment offered by Schumer. This one would allow the Senate to subpoena Defense Department documents and records related to Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), one of the impeachment managers, returned to the floor to introduce the amendment — but first, he said he wanted to get “something off my chest.”

“Counsel for the president and some other folks in this room have been talking a lot about how late it’s getting, how long this debate is taking,” Crow said.

McConnell halted the Senate trial proceedings at 9:29 p.m. in an apparent bid to negotiate an end to an hourslong debate over rules for the trial going forward.

McConnell’s move to put the Senate into a quorum call, a procedural move to pause the chamber’s proceedings, came after Schumer said he planned to call numerous additional amendment votes — possibly later into Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Among the amendments, he said, would be to summon additional witnesses and documents as well as measures to more closely align the Trump proceedings with the 1999 Clinton trial.

On a 53-to-47 vote, the Senate rejected the fourth Democratic amendment, which would have allowed the chamber to subpoena Mulvaney.

The acting White House chief of staff had defied a House subpoena last year as investigators sought information on how $391 million in congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine was withheld at the same time Trump was pressuring a foreign leader to investigate his domestic political rivals.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), lead impeachment manager, said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence agencies are withholding evidence on Ukraine “on the instruction of others or with the advice of others.”

In an interview with CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell, Schiff said, “We have requested intelligence, relevant intelligence, concerning Ukraine as a part of our oversight ability.” But some spy agencies, he said, “have stopped cooperating.”

He indicated that they were withholding intelligence “on the issue of how Ukraine has responded to the pressure campaign” by Trump and his personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to get Ukraine to announce publicly investigations into a political rival.

Schumer is expected to offer a fifth amendment Tuesday night following the vote on the motion to subpoena acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

The latest amendment would allow the Senate to subpoena Defense Department documents and records related to Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine.