Trump acquittal now likely; Senate nixes witnesses
WASHINGTON — The Senate narrowly rejected Democratic demands to summon witnesses for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial late Friday, all but ensuring Trump's acquittal in just the third trial to threaten a president's removal in U.S. history. But senators moved to push off final voting on his fate to next Wednesday.
The delay in timing showed the weight of a historic vote bearing down on senators, despite prodding by the president eager to have acquittal behind him in an election year and ahead of his State of the Union speech Tuesday.
Under an agreement to be voted on Friday night, the trial would resume Monday for final arguments, with time Monday and Tuesday for senators to speak. The final voting would be Wednesday, the day after Trump's speech.
Trump's acquittal appeared all but set after a hard-fought effort to allow new witness es was defeated 51-49 on a near party-line vote. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah voted with the Democrats, but that was not enough.
Despite the Democrats singular focus on hearing new testimony, the Republican majority brushed past those demands to make this the first impeachment trial without witnesses. Even new revelations Friday from former national security adviser John Bolton did not sway GOP senators, who said they'd heard enough.
That means the eventual outcome for Trump will be an acquittal “in name only,” said Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., a House prosecutor, during final debate. Some called it a cover-up.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called Friday night's results “a tragedy on a very large scale.” Protesters' chants reverberated against the walls of the Capitol.
But Republicans said Trump's acquittal is justified and inevitable.
“The sooner the better for the country,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump confidant. “Let's turn the page.”
The next steps come in the heart of presidential campaign season before a divided nation. Democratic caucus voting begins Monday in
Iowa, and Trump gives his State of the Union address the next night. Four Democratic candidates have been chafing in the Senate chamber rather than campaigning.
Trump was impeached by the House last month on charges the he abused power and obstructed Congress like no other president has done as he tried to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden, and then blocked the congressional probe of his actions.
The Democrats had badly wanted testimony from Bolton, whose forthcoming book links Trump directly to the charges. But Bolton won't be summoned, and none of this appeared to affect the trial's expected outcome. Democrats forced a series of procedural votes late Friday to call Bolton and White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, among others, but they were all being rejected.
In an unpublished manuscript, Bolton writes that the president asked him during an Oval Office meeting in early May to bolster his effort to get Ukraine to investigate Democrats, according to a person who read the passage and told The Associated Press. The person, who was not authorized to disclose contents of the book, spoke only on condition of anonymity.
In the meeting, Bolton said the president asked him to call new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and persuade him to meet with Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was planning to go to Ukraine to coax the Ukrainians to investigate the president's political rivals. Bolton writes that he never made the call to Zelenskiy after the meeting, which included acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
The revelation adds more detail to allegations of when and how Trump first sought to influence Ukraine to aid investigations of his rivals that are central to the abuse of power charge in the first article of impeachment.
The story was first reported Friday by The New York Times.
Trump issued a quick denial.
"I never instructed John Bolton to set up a meeting for Rudy Giuliani, one of the greatest corruption fighters in America and by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, to meet with President Zelenskiy," Trump said. “That meeting never happened.”
Key Republican senators said even if Trump committed the offenses as charged by the House, they are not impeachable and the partisan proceedings must end.
"I didn't need any more evidence because I thought it was proved that the president did what he was charged with doing," retiring GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a late holdout, told reporters Friday at the
Capitol. “But that didn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense.”
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she, too, would oppose more testimony in the charged partisan atmosphere, having "come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate.'' She said, "The Congress has failed.”
Eager for a conclusion, Trump's allies nevertheless suggested the shift in timing to extend the proceedings into next week, acknowledging the significance of the moment for senators who want to give final speeches.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the offer to Schumer, but it was not yet final.
Under the proposal, the Senate would resume Monday for final arguments, with time Monday and Tuesday for senators to speak. The final voting would be Wednesday.
To bring the trial toward a conclusion, Trump's attorneys argued the House had already heard from 17 witnesses and presented its 28,578page report to the Senate. They warned against prolonging it even further after House impeached Trump largely along party lines after less than thee months of formal proceedings making it the quickest, most partisan presidential impeachment in U.S. history.
Some senators pointed to the importance of the moment.
“What do you want your
place in history to be?” asked one of the House managers, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger.
Trump is almost assured of eventual acquittal with the Senate nowhere near the 67 votes needed for conviction and removal.
To hear more witnesses, it would have taken four Republicans to break with the
53-seat majority and join with all Democrats in demanding more testimony. But that effort fell short.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in the rare role presiding over the impeachment trial, could break a tie, but that seems unlikely. Asked late Friday, he told senators it would be “inappropriate.”