Trump’s defense team argued Tuesday that Democrats are seeking to remove him from office over policy differences as they offered their third and final day of opening arguments in a Senate trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The crux of the case for Trump’s impeachment is the allegation that he withheld military aid and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while his father was vice president. Trump’s attorneys have argued that the president was justified in seeking investigations because of a history of corruption involving the company.
●Leaked Bolton book threatens to upend Senate impeachment trial.
●White House works to contain damage from allegations in forthcoming Bolton book.
●Bolton book roils Washington as onetime allies turn on Trump’s former national security adviser.
The Senate impeachment trial process | The impeachment managers |Which senators support removing Trump | Trump’s legal team brief | House Democrats’ response
Ankle monitor to prevent Parnas from attending trial
A Ukrainian-born associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani who wants to testify at the Senate trial was given tickets to the proceeding by Sen. Charles E. Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office, but he will not be able to go after a federal judge denied his request to remove his ankle monitor.
Lev Parnas, who is under indictment in the Southern District of New York for campaign finance fraud in a case that crosses with Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine on behalf of Trump, is under house arrest in Florida and wears a monitor, though he’s been given prior travel permissions. Giuliani is one of Trump’s personal attorneys.
Parnas’s attorney, Joseph Bondy, said in a letter to U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken that he got an email Tuesday from Amy Mannering, Schumer’s director of operations, “informing that my request for tickets to the trial had been granted.” The tickets were granted for a window of time at the trial on Wednesday.
Oetken said in a two-sentence ruling that Parnas could go to Washington, but “to the extent that [the request] seeks the removal of the GPS monitoring device, the request is denied.”
Read more of this story here.
Trump accuses Democrats of ‘deranged partisan crusade’
Trump described impeachment as a “deranged partisan crusade” by “do-nothing Democrats” who want to force him from office.
Speaking at a rally in Wildwood, N.J., the president cycled through a number of frequent talking points about Democrats who he argued are “trying to overturn” the results of the 2016 election.
“Which is worse: the impeachment hoax or the witch hunts from Russia?” Trump said to laughs.
“We will make sure that they face another crushing defeat,” he said of Democrats, predicting that Republicans will win back the House in November. “... They can’t win an election, so they’re trying to steal an election.”
Graham calls on Bolton to hold a news conference
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) called on Bolton to hold a news conference to deliver his perspective for senators.
Speaking on Fox News, Graham addressed Bolton directly, noting that he recommended the former national security adviser to Trump and that he and Bolton have a “very shared worldview.”
“John, you’ve kind of thrown the country into a ditch here,” Graham said. “Just come forward and say what on your mind. Hold a news conference, and we’ll consider what you’ve got to say if you think it’s that important.”
He added: “From my point of view, I’ve got all the evidence I need.”
Graham said he is “increasingly optimistic” that the trial will be over before Trump’s scheduled State of the Union address in one week.
“If it goes beyond this week, it’s going to on for a long time,” he said of the proceedings.
Warren says impeachment trial ‘more important’ than politics
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) emphasized that she has no intention of skipping out on the impeachment trial in favor of the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
“There are some things that are more important than politics,” Warren told PBS. “I took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. ... I will be there as long as the trial needs me.”
Warren argued that the trial is about “trying to protect the integrity of the election process.”
“Remember exactly what’s been alleged here. What’s been alleged is, this is a president who was trying to interfere with an election, not just something else going on fraudulently, but trying to interfere with an election,” she said.
Jared Kushner calls impeachment trial a ‘nuisance’
Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner told CNN that Trump’s impeachment trial is a “nuisance” that “really doesn’t take a lot of our time,” referring to the White House staff.
Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, praised the White House’s legal defense before the Senate and accused Democrats of “going crazy” with their allegations of an impeachable quid pro quo involving Ukraine.
Kushner was on CNN to discuss Trump’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan, which granted Israel most of what it sought. The interview turned to impeachment at the end; Kushner did not speak about the possibility of Bolton testifying.
“It’s very easy to defend when they don’t really have any legitimate accusations against you,” Kushner said. “The president has been totally vindicated.”
McConnell tells GOP senators he does not have the votes to block witnesses
McConnell indicated in a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans that he did not yet have enough votes to defeat an effort, expected later this week, to call additional witnesses and evidence in the trial.
His remarks were confirmed by people familiar with them who spoke anonymously to discuss a private meeting. At least four Republicans would have to vote with all Democrats in the key vote later this week to allow witnesses. The vote will be on whether witnesses should be called. Votes on specific witnesses would come later.
The next steps for the Senate trial
Here’s how the next few days will go.
On Wednesday afternoon, the next phase of the trial begins — a chance for senators to ask questions of the prosecution and defense. They’ll spend up to eight hours a day asking questions, alternating between Republican and Democratic senators. Here’s the catch: The Senate rules passed in the 1980s outlining how to do a trial say senators have to ask these questions in writing (to avoid grandstanding). The chief justice will read them out loud.
Thursday will be the same as Wednesday. During the Bill Clinton trial, more than 100 questions were asked.
On Friday, senators are expected to debate, two hours for each side, on whether to call witnesses. Then they’ll vote on whether to hold a final vote to call witnesses, opening it up for more debate. Then they’ll vote on whether to call witnesses.
If they vote to call witnesses, the prosecution and defense each have to decide who to call. Roberts will issue the subpoena, and the witnesses would most likely be deposed behind closed doors first, kind of like how House Democrats interviewed witnesses in their impeachment inquiry in private, secure rooms in the Capitol’s basement. During the Clinton trial, one senator from each side was present during these depositions, which was conducted by staff lawyers. After those depositions, senators would decide whether to have these witnesses testify live on the Senate floor, or air videotape from their interviews or just share the transcripts with senators.
If they vote not to call witnesses, the trial is basically over, save for two final, big votes: whether to convict or acquit Trump on each article of impeachment. As things stand now, there is every sign that Republican senators will stand by Trump and keep him in office.
(This is an abridged edition of The 5-Minute Fix impeachment newsletter. You can sign up to receive it here.)
Trump defense did not mention CrowdStrike theory
Trump’s defense team ended an extended opening argument Tuesday in which it laid out that Trump had legitimate reasons to ask Ukraine for specific investigations.
But it spent almost no time vouching for the actual investigations he wanted.
To the extent that Trump’s team tried to argue that the investigations were legitimate, it focused mostly on the idea that Hunter Biden’s employment at a Ukrainian gas company was problematic. It spent considerably less time arguing for the theory that Trump actually raised with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on their phone call: that then-Vice President Joe Biden sought to help his son by pushing out Ukraine’s top prosecutor.
Ditto the other investigation Trump sought. In fact, Trump’s legal team spent literally zero time talking about the one involving CrowdStrike and a server that was supposedly in Ukraine. Trump’s team didn’t utter the word “CrowdStrike” once in three days, in fact, nor did it even mention a “server” in Ukraine. It instead more broadly defended the idea that Ukraine might have interfered in the 2016 election.
Read more analysis here.
GOP senators unresolved on witnesses
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), one of a handful of GOP senators Democrats think can be convinced to vote to allow witnesses to testify, told reporters that he won’t make a decision until after the question period.
“I think the path forward is, we’ve got two days of questions and answers. That’ll take Wednesday and Thursday. As far as I’m concerned, after I finish hearing the answers to the questions and consider the record — I’ve heard the arguments of both sides — then I’ll make a decision about whether we need more evidence in terms of documents and witnesses,” Alexander said, leaving a closed-door meeting with GOP senators.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) exited the meeting with little update other than to say “there is no agreement yet” on a pathway forward to allow witnesses.
But Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said “most of us believe we don’t need any more witnesses.”
“In terms of how people vote on witnesses, all I can say, is I don’t need any more evidence,” Graham said. “But if we do call witnesses, we’re not just going to call one witness. We’re going to call a bunch of witnesses.”
Key senators huddle after White House presentations
After the White House wrapped up its case, the Senate adjourned and small huddles formed around the chamber.
Attention was directed toward the moderates whose votes will determine whether the trial includes witnesses.
In chairs in the back, reserved for staff, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) sat with freshman Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), a Democrat always in the mix, first huddled with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) before moving on to a long one-on-one discussion with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who had previously been meeting with Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.).
And finally, Collins walked over to join a Republican scrum led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), whose back-row desk is a pivotal place in the chamber, given his Bush-lineage roots in politics. The impromptu gathering included Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and, later, John Thune (R-S.D.).
Schumer says no need to review Bolton manuscript in secure area
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) dismissed one Republican’s proposal that senators receive access to Bolton’s manuscript in a secure area.
“What the heck are they hiding?” he told reporters after Tuesday’s session recessed. “You don’t need it in a classified [setting]. There is no substitute for a witness speaking under oath to the senators.”
A classified version of the transcript “is just another excuse to hide things,” he said of the proposal from Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “They are afraid to tell the truth.”
Schumer said his plans for the upcoming question-and-answer period do not include “censuring anybody.”
“What we are doing is sort of organizing things,” he said. “We don’t want the same question 10 times, and we want them in some degree of order.”
“I’m sure that a good number of the questions will give House managers a chance to rebut” the White House’s case, he said.
Defense rests, trial to resume Wednesday afternoon
Trump’s defense team finished its opening arguments, taking less than two hours to make a final plea to end the trial “here and now.”
“End the era of impeachment for good,” said Pat Cipollone, Trump’s White House counsel. “You know it should end.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced the trial was done for the day and would resume Wednesday afternoon with the question period for senators.
The questions will alternate between the majority and minority for up to eight hours on Wednesday and again for up to eight hours on Thursday. They are submitted to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who reads them.
“During the question period of the [Bill] Clinton trial, senators were thoughtful and brief with their questions, and the managers and counsel were succinct in their answers,” McConnell said.
Echoing that, Roberts asked the managers and Trump counsel to abide by a time limit of five minutes or less to answer each question.
Final video from Trump defense shows Democrats lambasting Clinton impeachment
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone began his final presentation with a video compilation showing several House managers and Senate Democrats criticizing the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998.
In old C-SPAN footage, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said there should “never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment supported by one of our major political parties and opposed by the other.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said the Clinton impeachment would “damage the faith the American people have in this institution.”
“Future presidents will face election, then litigation, then impeachment,” she said.
Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) were shown making similar points as House representatives. Markey called the impeachment a “constitutional coup d’etat which will haunt this body and our country forever.”
The roundup ended with footage of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) saying: “My fear is that when a Republican wins the White House, Democrats will demand payback.”
“You were right,” Cipollone said after the video ended, prompting laughter in the chamber. “But I’m sorry to say you were also prophetic. And I think I couldn’t say it better myself, so I won’t.”
Sekulow says ‘justice demands’ acquitting Trump
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow wrapped up his presentation by arguing that Democrats were trying to remove Trump from office for policy differences.
“The bar for impeachment cannot be set this low,” he said. “Danger, danger, danger. These articles must be rejected. The Constitution requires it. Justice demands it.”
Earlier, Sekulow argued that the abuse of power charge “fails constitutionally.”
“The president has constitutional authority to engage, conduct foreign policy and foreign affairs,” he said. “It is our position, legally, the president at all times acted with perfect legal authority, inquired of matters in our national interest.”
Sekulow calls Bolton revelations ‘inadmissible’
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow argued that the revelations from Bolton’s manuscript would not be admissible during a typical trial, dismissing their importance to the impeachment proceedings.
Sekulow read several statements denying Bolton’s allegation that Trump directly tied the withholding of military aid to Ukraine to investigations into his political rivals. The statements came from Trump, the Department of Justice and the chief of staff to Vice President Pence.
Sekulow then sought to emphasize what remains unknown about Bolton’s still-unpublished book, calling it “an unpublished manuscript that maybe some reporters have an idea of maybe what it says.”
Sekulow continued: “I mean, that’s what the evidence — if you want to call that evidence — I don’t know what you’d call that — I’d call it inadmissible — but that’s what it is.”
Sen. Loeffler turns attack from Romney to Democrats
A day after lifting eyebrows by launching a Twitter attack on GOP colleague Mitt Romney, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (Ga.) turned her fire outside the tent Tuesday — attacking Democrats and praising Trump.
On Twitter, she summarized the impeachment articles in this way: “Article 1 -The House doesn’t like @POTUS. Article 2 — The Democrats don’t think they can beat @POTUS in November.” She also lauded Trump’s leadership: “Nobody is working harder for the American people.”
The tweets came a day after news broke that a key rival, Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), was planning to challenge her in a special election later this year for the seat Gov. Brian Kemp (R) appointed her to this month.
As she arrived to the GOP luncheon Tuesday, Loeffler looked down and declined to address why she attacked Romney, a onetime friend to whose presidential campaign she supported to the tune of $750,000.
After three questions and three seconds of silence, she ducked into the private luncheon.
Despite the internal feud, key Senate Republicans stood behind Loeffler in the emerging primary race.
“We will be supportive of Kelly Loeffler,” said Sen. Todd C. Young (R-Ind.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “She’s already proven herself to be a strong conservative who will represent the state of Georgia well. And we’re fully committed to her success.”
Sekulow warns of danger of lowering bar for impeachment
As he began his presentation, Trump personal lawyer Jay Sekulow sought to remind the Senate of the grave stakes.
This is “the trial of the leader of the free world and the duly elected president of the United States,” he said. “It is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts. That’s politics, unfortunately, and [founder Alexander] Hamilton put impeachment in the hands of this body, the Senate, precisely and specifically to be above that fray. This is the greatest deliberative body on Earth.”
Sekulow went on to argue that House managers were seeking to lower the bar for a legitimate impeachment.
“In our presentation so far, you’ve now heard from legal scholars, from a variety of schools of thought, from a variety of political backgrounds, but they do have a common theme with a dire warning: Danger, danger, danger,” Sekulow said. “To lower the bar of impeachment based on these articles of impeachment would impact the functioning of our constitutional republic and the framework of that Constitution for generations.”
Defense pushes back on notion of ‘coverup’ related to call transcript
Patrick F. Philbin, a deputy White House counsel, began the defense team’s presentation by pushing back on several points made last week by House managers, including their definition of “abuse of power” — one of the two articles of impeachment — and their allegation of a White House coverup of Trump’s July call with the Ukrainian president.
During their opening arguments, the House managers said moving the rough transcript of the call to a special computer server was evidence of a coverup.
“Everyone who knew something about it and who testified agreed there was no malicious intent,” Philbin said. “The call was still available to everyone who needed it as part of their job. And it certainly wasn’t covered up or deep-sixed in some way. The president declassified it and made it public. So why we’re even here talking about these accusations about a coverup when it’s a transcript that was preserved and made public is somewhat absurd.”
The defense team indicated that they would use far less than the 15 hours they have remaining for their opening arguments. Philbin’s presentation was expected to be followed by two more, with the session wrapping up before dinnertime, the defense team said.
Dershowitz was a guest at Trump’s Middle East peace plan announcement
Harvard Law School emeritus professor Alan Dershowitz, who argued on Trump’s behalf in the Senate impeachment trial Monday, was a guest at the White House on Tuesday, attending Trump’s announcement of a Middle East peace plan.
Dershowitz was spotted in the East Room as Trump outlined his long-awaited plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Democrats use Starr’s own words to contradict Justice Department
Attorneys for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are using the words of the president’s legal team, including attorney Kenneth Starr, to try to illustrate how Trump’s Senate defense is undercutting the administration’s position in a pending lawsuit over access to secret grand jury materials Democrats are seeking.
During the defense presentation Monday, Starr, a former independent counsel, reminded senators that they do not sit as jurors.
“Rather, the Senate is a court. In fact, history teaches us that for literally decades, this body was referred to in this context as the high court of impeachment,” said Starr, whose investigation formed the basis of the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
“So we are not a legislative chamber during these proceedings. We are in a tribunal. We are in court.”
Trump administration lawyers have been arguing the opposite in a pending lawsuit, House lawyers told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a new filing Tuesday.
The Justice Department has argued that a Senate impeachment trial is not a “judicial proceeding” and therefore not exempt from secrecy rules that shield grand jury materials from disclosure.
“That argument has now been contradicted by the President’s counsel’s statements to the Senate, which confirm that the Senate sits as a “court” rather than a “legislative chamber” during an impeachment trial,” according to the filing from House general counsel Douglas N. Letter.
House Democrats have said they need the secret material from the Russia investigation of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to determine whether the president lied in his written answers to Mueller’s investigation and to try to establish a pattern of alleged obstruction by the president as part of the impeachment proceedings.
Sen. Rand Paul torches Bolton as a ‘disgruntled, fired employee’
If there’s one Republican on Capitol Hill who feels little need to bow to GOP foreign policy veteran Bolton, it’s Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), whose isolationist foreign policy outlook directly clashes with Bolton’s muscular nationalism.
Arriving at the Capitol on Tuesday, Paul blasted Bolton’s credibility and suggested that the Senate doesn’t need to hear his testimony.
“I think, at this point, if you want to hear from John Bolton, you have to ask yourself: Is he a disinterested party? Is he a neutral party? Or is he someone who’s very unhappy — disgruntled, fired employee who now has a motive, a multimillion-dollar motive, to inflame the situation?”
Paul continued: “His history of his career was, what? Decades and decades of defending executive power and executive privilege. Now he’s willing to reveal every conversation that he had about national security with the president for money. So the Democrats have spent a lot of time imagining what the president’s motives are. Someone ought to spend some time imagining what John Bolton’s motives are, other than making millions of dollars to trash the president.”
Paul said he was all but ready to move to a verdict once the White House closes its defense Tuesday and senators ask 16 hours of questions: “I think we’ve heard a lot of witnesses and we’ve heard a lot of testimony. But I think we’re at the point where we’ve heard enough, frankly.”
He echoed other GOP senators Tuesday in praising White House arguments against impeachment on constitutional grounds, suggesting that removal is not warranted even if Democrats prove their core abuse of power allegation.
“I think Professor Dershowitz was very persuasive,” he said of Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law professor who directly argued that Bolton’s quid-pro-quo allegation is not impeachable.
Trump announces Israeli-Palestinian peace plan amid doubts it will lead to progress
As the Senate prepared to reconvene for Trump’s impeachment trial, he announced an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the White House.
Trump said the package offers Israel a guarantee of security while giving Palestinians a path to an autonomous state. But few think that will become reality.
“It’s been a long and very arduous process to arrive at this moment,” Trump said, standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The plan would be a basis for negotiations if Israel and the Palestinians agreed, but that looks far from likely. Palestinian leaders rejected the plan before its release.
Read more here.
Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly says he believes Bolton
John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff from July 2017 through January 2019, suggested Monday that he’d take Bolton’s word over that of his former boss.
Kelly was asked about Bolton’s claim in a yet-to-be-released book that Trump had told him he wanted to make aid to Ukraine contingent on an investigation of the Bidens.
“If John Bolton says that in a book, I believe John Bolton,” Kelly said, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Trump has vigorously denied Bolton’s account.
Kelly, speaking in Sarasota as part of a lecture series, also said he supports calling witnesses to testify in the Senate trial, which Trump and most Republicans have rejected.
“I think some of the conversations seem to me to be very inappropriate but I wasn’t there,” Kelly said. “But there are people that were there that ought to be heard from.”
Van Hollen suggests Trump testify under penalty of perjury
Sen. Chris Van Hollen offered a rejoinder to Trump after a tweet in which the president complained that Fox News had given the Maryland Democrat airtime to talk about the impeachment trial.
“Glad you tuned in, Mr. President,” Van Hollen said in a tweet of his own. “Now that I have your attention, how about coming down to the Senate to share your side of the story under penalty of perjury?”
Schiff resists GOP calls for him to testify and for the House to issue subpoena for Bolton
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the House’s lead impeachment manager, said Tuesday that the Senate must secure testimony from Bolton and should not look to the House to issue its own subpoena for the former national security adviser.
Amid Senate Republicans’ talk about witnesses — including the discussion of proposals that could include calling Schiff to testify — Schiff dismissed the suggestion and said Democrats should resist any attempt to make the trial a “circus.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, Schiff said that pressure is mounting on Republicans rather than Democrats, following the uproar caused by leaked details from Bolton’s upcoming book about his time in the White House.
At this juncture, Schiff said, if Bolton is not called by the GOP-controlled Senate, “the inference is that the president is guilty, and his lawyers are basically screaming to the rafters, ‘Our client is guilty, our client is guilty. We just don’t want the public to see any more evidence of it.’ ”
In the coming days, Schiff said Democrats should continue to push for Bolton to testify — and he said he is open to discussion about how that agreement is done.
While he would prefer to see Bolton testify publicly, Schiff said his priority is making sure that Bolton’s testimony is included as evidence in the trial, be it public testimony or a closed deposition.
In an organizing resolution released last week and written by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his team, the rules would allow either the president’s defense team or the House impeachment managers to subpoena witnesses if the Senate agrees, but any witnesses would first have to be deposed.
When asked whether he has documents ready to subpoena Bolton to testify before the House, should Senate witness negotiations collapse later this week, Schiff declined to comment.
“I really don’t want to comment on any fallback plans,” he said.
Schiff also sharply dismissed the suggestion, made by Trump’s allies, that he could serve as a witness in the impeachment trial, particularly if Republicans push for a “one-for-one” trade with Democrats where each party called a single witness.
“I just can’t endorse the idea that in order to get a witness who’s clearly relevant, the Senate is going to go along with an idea to call someone who is plainly not,” Schiff said, referring to Republican calls for him or Hunter Biden to testify in the trial. “What they’re looking for is a pound of flesh.”
Schumer says Bolton would provide eyewitness testimony
At a news conference, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) continued his demands for new witnesses, accusing GOP senators of not wanting to hear evidence Bolton has against the president.
“In a few weeks or a few months, do my Republican colleagues want to pick up the paper and read that one of the witnesses they blocked had crucial information about the president’s misconduct?” Schumer asked.
He accused Republicans of focusing on Hunter Biden’s testimony to distract from the “facts and the law against the president.” He said Trump’s defense team misled in its presentation by claiming that there are no eyewitnesses to Trump’s behavior.
“He has the nerve, the gall, the belief that he can deceive … when it has been revealed that Hunter Biden does have the eyewitness testimony and is willing to testify,” Schumer said loudly.
The reporters in the room winced and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) whispered in his ear.
“What did I say?” Schumer said, turning to Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
Then Schumer, realizing his mistake, did the entire windup again, this time saying Bolton instead of Biden.
Cramer voices reservations about Bolton’s book becoming part of trial
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) voiced reservations Tuesday about having senators read Bolton’s book as part of the trial.
“I want to get to a vote on acquittal, quite honestly,” the senator told reporters. “The country doesn’t need to be dragged through a longer process that’s going to have the same outcome. It just further divides us.”
Cramer also expressed concern that the book would not be the end of Democrats’ pursuit.
“That’s my problem,” he said. “When you open the door a little, you will never satiate the House managers. … It’s as if they want to go fishing in the United States Senate, and they’re going to go fishing until they catch one.”
GOP latches on to Dershowitz to dismiss idea of Bolton testimony
Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz’s presentation Monday night may have perplexed Democrats, but it gave some Republicans the framework they were searching for to dismiss Bolton as a potential witness, even if his account of Trump’s actions is 100 percent true.
“Let’s say it’s true, okay? Dershowitz last night explained that if you’re looking at it from a constitutional point of view, that that is not something that is impeachable,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) told reporters Tuesday.
Dershowitz said during his defense of Trump that “nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense.”
That argument “probably gave a lot more peace of mind to people that were wanting to see how to sort through it,” Braun said, noting that he approached Dershowitz afterward to ask him again: “If Bolton’s revelation in its full form was true, is that impeachable in your opinion? … And he said, ‘No, because it imputes motives.’ ”
Braun said he would probably submit a question for the upcoming question-and-answer portion of the trial “just to verify and get another opinion on what Dershowitz talked about.”
Elsewhere around the Capitol, other Republican senators — including Sens. John Cornyn (Tex.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Mike Rounds (S.D.) — expressed similar opinions about Dershowitz’s rationale.
Durbin says reading Bolton’s book isn’t good enough
Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) pushed back Tuesday on the prospect of getting to read Bolton’s book but not having him appear at the trial.
“Let’s see the book. But it’s not sufficient for what we need,” Durbin told reporters. “We need testimony. Why are the Republicans so afraid of witnesses?”
Durbin argued that having a witness testify in person would allow cross-examination.
“For goodness’ sake, we know what-cross examination does,” he said. “It tests a person’s veracity and their memory. And you can’t do that reading a book. … Put him under oath, ask questions on both sides, and let the American people decide.”
Democrats interested not only in the manuscript, aide says
A senior Democratic aide close to the impeachment managers said Tuesday that Democrats are interested in more documents than simply Bolton’s forthcoming book manuscript — noting that the former national security adviser was known as a “prodigious” note-taker and may have taken some of his notes with him when he left the White House last year.
The comment suggests that Democrats will not be willing to sign on to a notion taking root among some Republicans to secure Bolton’s manuscript for review and move to end the trial. The aide was among several who addressed reporters Tuesday on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
A second aide joined multiple Democratic senators in rejecting another idea floated by the GOP: a “one-for-one” witness trade where Bolton would be called alongside Hunter Biden — whose work in Ukraine was highlighted during Trump’s defense presentation Monday.
“Trials are about witnesses, but they’re about material witnesses who have relevant information,” the second aide said. “So from our perspective, we’re focused on Bolton for that reason. … We do not believe that there is a place here for the kind of irrelevant smear campaign that we saw yesterday. So we’re just going to go straight ahead on the material and relevant witnesses, and we will make that case to the Senate.”
Trump lashes out at Fox News after Sen. Van Hollen appears as guest
Trump lashed out at Fox News on Tuesday shortly after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) appeared on air to talk about the impeachment trial and make the case for calling witnesses.
“Really pathetic how @FoxNews is trying to be so politically correct by loading the airwaves with Democrats like Chris Van Hollen, the no name Senator from Maryland,” Trump tweeted. “He has been on forever playing up the Impeachment Hoax.”
Trump also noted that the Democratic National Committee had declined to allow Fox News to sponsor any of its presidential debates.
“So, what the hell has happened to @FoxNews,” Trump continued in a tweet in which he derided two anchors, Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith, who recently departed. “Chris Wallace and others should be on Fake News CNN or MSDNC. How’s Shep Smith doing? Watch, this will be the beginning of the end for Fox, just like the other two which are dying in the ratings. Social Media is great!”
Trump’s reference to MSDNC was apparently meant to suggest that MSNBC is controlled by the DNC.
Graham supports plan to allow senators to read Bolton manuscript
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that he supports a proposal by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) to allow senators to read Bolton’s manuscript in a classified setting if need be.
Bolton’s manuscript is under a standard review by the National Security Council before publication.
“I totally support @SenatorLankford’s proposal that the Bolton manuscript be made available to the Senate, if possible, in a classified setting where each Senator has the opportunity to review the manuscript and make their own determination,” Graham tweeted.
Graham said Monday that senators should have an opportunity to read the manuscript before deciding whether to call Bolton as a witness.
“Let’s see what’s in the manuscript,” Graham told reporters. “Let’s see if it’s relevant, and if it is, then I’ll make a decision about Bolton.”
Sen. Van Hollen advocates letting Roberts decide on witnesses
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Tuesday that he is considering reintroducing a motion that would allow Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who is presiding over the Senate trial, to decide which witnesses should be heard.
During an appearance on Fox News, Van Hollen said that since the Bolton manuscript came to light, “all the momentum here now is in favor of calling relevant fact witnesses.”
During debate last week over trial rules, Van Hollen introduced an amendment that would have made Roberts the arbiter on witnesses. The measure failed along party lines.
During the interview, Van Hollen also pushed back on the notion advanced by some Republicans that allowing witnesses could produce long delays in the trial, given that Trump is likely to exert executive privilege and that the issue will have to be litigated.
Van Hollen said Roberts could also be relied upon to decide privilege issues.
“He can quickly adjudicate questions of executive privilege,” Van Hollen said.
Rep. Biggs says Bolton testimony would be largely irrelevant
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a staunch ally of Trump, argued Tuesday that testimony from Bolton would be largely irrelevant to a Senate trial.
“I don’t know what he’s going to say, and frankly, in many instances, it’s irrelevant what he’s going to say. The case has been presented,” he said during an interview on Fox News. “This doesn’t change anything.”
Biggs said that if the door is opened to witnesses, Republicans should not only call Hunter Biden but several others, including the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the House impeachment inquiry, and someone familiar with the thinking of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Schiff questions why GOP lawmakers want to ‘seamlessly tie themselves to this president’
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead impeachment manager, accused Republicans of being “fairly shortsighted” in their loyalty to Trump during the impeachment trial.
“It doesn’t require a great prescience to know history is not going to be kind to this president,” Schiff said during an appearance on MSNBC in which he questioned why GOP lawmakers would want to “seamlessly tie themselves to this president.”
Schiff also made a fresh appeal for including witnesses in the trial.
“If the senators don’t call witnesses, this is not a fair trial,” Schiff said. “It’s not a trial at all.”
Pelosi renews call for a ‘fair trial,’ knocks Trump defense team
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) renewed her call for a “fair trial” in a tweet Tuesday in which she also characterized Trump’s lawyers as having argued that he has “a right to abuse his power as much as he wants.”
Her tweet came a day after Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz told the Senate that “purely noncriminal conduct, including ‘abuse of power’ and ‘obstruction of justice,’ are outside the range of impeachable offenses.”
“Trump’s lawyers argued he has a right to abuse his power as much as he wants, and Congress can do nothing about it,” Pelosi said in her tweet. “Sounds familiar.”
She then quoted Trump from a speech in July in which he asserted Article II of the Constitution gives him “the right to do whatever I want as president.”
“Congress can do something: hold a fair trial,” Pelosi added.
Sen. Durbin says he’s not interested in ‘trading baseball cards’
Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday panned a plan by Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), an influential conservative, to summon just two witnesses in Trump’s trial, with one called by Republicans and one by Democrats.
Asked on CNN whether he’d consider trading Bolton for Hunter Biden, Durbin strongly pushed back on the notion.
“Listen, we’re not trading baseball cards,” Durbin said. “We’re not kids sitting around here, picking our favorite and putting them in the middle of the circle. … This idea of bargaining — ‘Well, we’ll give you one irrelevant witness for one material witness’ — baloney.”
Durbin said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who is presiding over Trump’s trial, should decide which witnesses are relevant.
Durbin’s comments echoed those of Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who told reporters Monday that he has no interested in a Bolton-for-Hunter Biden trade.
“I refuse to be part of the same conspiracy that is the subject of impeachment,” Murphy said. “I mean the whole point of the impeachment case is that the president was using the official powers of his office to trash his political opponents, and now they’re asking us to use our official powers as members of the Senate to trash the president’s political opponents. I’m not going to do that.”
Rep. Demings says Trump defense has evolved in recent days
Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), one of the House impeachment managers, argued Tuesday that Trump’s defense team’s arguments have evolved in recent days.
During a CNN appearance, Demings was asked about an assertion Monday by Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz that “nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense.”
“We’ve gone from ‘The president did nothing wrong, the call was perfect’ to ‘There was no quid pro quo’ to ‘Well, if I did do it, so what?’ ” Demings said. “The American people are not going to fall for that.”
The call she referred to took place in July between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump has repeatedly described the call, in which he pressed Zelensky for an investigation of the Bidens, as “perfect.”
Trump to unveil Middle East peace plan, hold campaign rally
As the Senate trial unfolds on Capitol Hill, Trump plans Tuesday to announce his long-awaited Middle East peace plan before heading to New Jersey for a “Keep America Great” campaign rally with Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), a former Democrat who switched his affiliation after the House voted last month to impeach Trump.
Trump is scheduled to appear alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a White House event at noon at which his aides say he is expected to detail a proposal for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that dates from Israel’s founding in 1948.
The president previewed his proposal in private meetings Monday with Netanyahu and the veteran Israeli leader’s challenger in upcoming elections, Benny Gantz.
Tuesday night’s rally is being held in Wildwood, N.J. Trump has often used his campaign rallies to air grievances about his impeachment and the Democrats who pushed it.
Trump campaign compares Bolton manuscript to Kavanaugh allegations
A Trump campaign spokesman on Tuesday compared the emergence of the Bolton manuscript to allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing in 2018 was upended by late-hour allegations that he had committed sexual assault while a teenager in the 1980s. He was eventually confirmed after days of dramatic testimony and debate.
“Striking parallels between Bolton leak & what Dems and the media tried to do to Brett Kavanaugh,” tweeted Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for the Trump campaign. “Same playbook: Breathless media reporting ‘bombshells’ to try to alter events. Bolton leak changes no facts, but Trump opponents and the media are obviously working hand in hand.”
Pelosi shares editorial that supports calling witnesses
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday widely shared a New York Times editorial that supports calling Bolton and other witnesses in the Senate trial.
“It’s just possible that common sense and reality have a shot at prying open the doors to the Senate chamber after all,” said the editorial, which Pelosi’s office blasted to reporters over email. “After Republican senators claimed that it was perfectly reasonable to put a United States president on trial without hearing from any witnesses, a few of them are showing signs of recognizing that the truth matters. Or, at least, that the American people believe it does.”
The editorial cited comments from several Republicans in response to reports that Bolton’s book manuscript says Trump directly tied the holdup of nearly $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine to investigations of Biden and his son.
Trump team to present third and final day of opening arguments
Trump’s legal team is set Tuesday to present its third and final day of opening arguments in his impeachment trial in the Senate, as debate continues outside the chamber over whether Bolton and other witnesses will be called.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 1 p.m.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers pushed forward with their defense of the president, largely ignoring the uproar caused by leaked details from a book by Bolton. As part of their defense, they pivoted into a sharp line of attack on Joe Biden and his son Hunter over their involvement in Ukraine.
Trump’s attorneys also devoted some of their floor time Monday to arguing that Trump acted appropriately in delaying the security aid to Ukraine, and that he did so because of his concerns about corruption in that country and about whether other nations were doing their fair share in providing security support.
Once Trump’s team wraps up, senators will be given up to 16 hours to pose written questions to both the House managers and Trump’s defense team.
Once that takes place, a crucial vote is expected, possibly on Friday, on whether to hear from witnesses before the trial concludes. For Democrats to succeed in calling witnesses, they will need at least four GOP senators to vote with them.
Hard-charging White House budget lawyer in middle of Ukraine decision has pushed legal limits for Trump
A hard-charging conservative lawyer little known to the public is responsible for executing some of the White House’s most divisive and legally aggressive moves, including the hold on Ukrainian aid now central to Trump’s impeachment trial.
Mark Paoletta, general counsel at the White House Office of Management and Budget, signed off on the delay of security assistance to Ukraine, overruling the objections of some career staffers at the OMB and the Pentagon. The Government Accountability Office recently determined that the delay was unlawful.
Paoletta’s below-the-radar role in a decision key to Trump’s impeachment is just one example of how he has enabled the White House to stretch the legal limits of the executive branch — forcefully pushing forward the administration’s agenda but sometimes incurring a severe backlash in the process.
Read more here.
Who is paying the president’s lawyers in the impeachment trial?
As Trump faces mounting legal bills from his impeachment trial, he is drawing on national party coffers flush with donations from energized supporters — unlike the last president to be impeached.
The Republican National Committee is picking up the tab for at least two of Trump’s private attorneys in the ongoing trial, an arrangement that differs from the legal fund President Bill Clinton set up, only to see it fail to raise enough to cover his millions of dollars in bills before he left office.
The law firms of Trump’s lead lawyer, Jay Sekulow and attorney Jane Raskin have received a total of $225,000 from the RNC through November, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. The party will pay the duo for their work this month and likely into February as the trial continues, according to people familiar with the arrangement who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal financing.
Read more here.
Trump offers spate of tweets and retweets on impeachment
Trump returned to Twitter late Monday to share a spate of tweets and retweets, many of them focused on impeachment.
Among them was a tweet by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) questioning why Bolton had declined to testify during the House impeachment proceedings.
“Why didn’t John Bolton testify to the US House? Apparently his book wasn’t quite finished yet for presales!” Paul tweeted.
Court asked to define what federal employees can say about impeachment
A court has been asked to define the limits of what federal employees may say in the workplace about the impeachment and trial of Trump without running afoul of restrictions against partisan politics by civil servants.
The request, filed last Friday in an ongoing suit, asks the court to immediately block policies that it says are causing federal employees to self-censor out of fear of being charged with violating the Hatch Act.
Those policies were issued in 2018 when impeachment was only a theoretical topic, “but with the impeachment trial dominating national news, the issue has become more urgent as the policy is chilling the free speech rights of federal employees,” said the American Federation of Government Employees, which is sponsoring the suit.
The Hatch Act bars federal employees from using their official authority to support a political party, candidate in a partisan race or partisan political group. Also, while on duty or in a federal workplace, they may not engage in political activity directed at the success or failure of such a party, candidate or group. Penalties for violations can range up to firing and debarment from future federal employment.
The Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that enforces that law, said in early 2018 that “merely discussing impeachment, without advocating for or against its use against such a candidate, is not political activity.” For example, it said, employees “may discuss whether reported conduct by the president warrants impeachment and express an opinion about whether the president should be impeached” but may not display signs in the office for or against impeachment.
The AFGE motion, though, contends that “the distinction between ‘advocating’ for or against impeachment and ‘expressing an opinion about whether the president should be impeached’ is indecipherable.”
Read more here.