Senators’ shift signals a new twist in Trump impeachment

DONALD TRUMP faces an escalation of his impeachment trial after four Republican senators indicated they may join Democrats to call new witnesses to give evidence against him.

With the case set to begin in earnest on Tuesday, the senators’ suggestion that they are open to hearing fresh information threw a last-minute twist into the proceedings.

John Bolton, Mr Trump’s former national security adviser, and Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, top the list of potential witnesses Democrats want to hear from.

Both are believed to have direct knowledge of what Mr Trump was thinking as he held back $400million (£307million) in military aid to Ukraine while seeking an investigation into political rival Joe Biden – the scandal that triggered his impeachment.

Mr Trump is only the third US president to face an impeachment trial in the Senate, and America is expected to be gripped by the courtroom drama as it unfolds live on television.

The president has declared the highstakes showdown a “sham”.

Witnesses will only be called if at least 51 of the 100 senators vote for a motion to hear from them. There are 47 Democrats and independents, meaning the support of four Republicans would be needed.

Republican senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, now appear open to calling witnesses.

Mr Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and frequent Trump critic, has been the most vocal.

“I would like to be able to hear from John Bolton,” he has said.

Ms Collins, who faces a tough fight for re-election this year in Democrat-voting Maine, went public with a statement this week.

She said: “It is likely that I would support a motion to call witnesses … just as I did [at President Bill Clinton’s trial] in 1999.” Ms Murkowski and Mr Alexander are being more cagey but have ruled nothing out.

The former is a prominent party moderate, while the latter is retiring this year, theoretically meaning he can act without fear of political blowback.

“Am I curious about what Ambassador Bolton would have to say? Yes, I am,” Ms Murkowski told reporters, according to Alaska Public Radio.

Mr Alexander said he would vote for new witnesses “if I needed to. Or I might not. Or I might.”

The public musing from senators who hold the fate of the presidency in their hands is, it appears, being closely watched from the Oval Office.

On Thursday, Mr Trump signalled his support on Twitter for Mr Alexander’s bill to give the Congressional Gold Medal to a war hero. “Looking at this strongly!” he wrote.

There have also been olive branches to Mr Romney. Their past animosity is well known, with Mr Romney calling Mr Trump “a phoney” and “a fraud” before the 2016 election and the president calling the senator a “pompous ass”.

Yet before Christmas the two men appeared sitting side by side at an event in the White House, a hint that the president knows, for now at least, he needs to count on his senators.

But more aggressive tactics are emerging. Hardline Republicans have been threatening to call their own witnesses, including Mr Biden, who is the front-runner to be the Democratic presidential nominee.

Meanwhile, polls suggest a vast majority of Republican voters are still loyal to the president. So Republicans voting to hear from witnesses could lose support at home.

The chance of Mr Trump being removed from office remains slim. At least 67 of the 100 senators would need to vote to convict him.

But testimony from Mr Trump’s inner circle would create new waves in already uncharted political waters.

‘Am I curious about what Ambassador Bolton would have to say? Yes, I am’