The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump team concludes its defense By Eric Tucker, Zeke Miller and Lisa Mascaro
Democrats still want to call witnesses, and majority leader says GOP doesn’t have votes yet to block.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s legal team argued forcefully against the relevance of testimony from Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday as they concluded their defense and the Senate braced for debate on whether to summon Bolton and other witnesses into the impeachment trial. “This should end now, as quickly as possible,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone declared, capping a defense presentation that painted Trump as a victim and took dismissive swipes at Bolton, the potential witness who has scrambled Republican hopes for a swift end to the trial.
What happened
A day after the defense team largely brushed past Bolton, attorney Jay Sekulow addressed the controversy head-on by dismissing his manuscript — said to contradict a key defense argument about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine — as “inadmissible.” The argument was meant to preempt calls from Democrats for witnesses including Bolton, who writes in a forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until the nation helped with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden.
“It is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts,” Sekulow said. Sekulow also sought to undermine the credibility of Bolton’s book by noting Attorney General William Barr has disputed comments attributed to him by Bolton.
Trump’s attorneys argued the Founding Fathers took care to make sure impeachment was narrowly defined. “The bar for impeachment cannot be set this low,” Sekulow said. “Danger. Danger. Danger. These articles must be rejected. The Constitution requires it. Justice demands it.”
Trump and other Republicans have strongly resisted summoning Bolton to testify in person about what he saw and heard as Trump’s national security adviser. A Republican familiar with a closed-door meeting of GOP senators after
Tuesday’s proceedings, granted anonymity to discuss the meeting, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told senators he did not currently have the votes to block Democrats from calling witnesses at the trial but is optimistic they will have the votes they need by the end of the week.
Alternatives to public appearance by Bolton
Senate Republicans are discussing ideas to satisfy those who want to hear more testimony without prolonging the proceedings — or jeopardizing the president’s expected acquittal. One Republican, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, was floating an idea backed by Sen. Lindsey Graham to subpoena Bolton’s book manuscript so senators can see the evidence themselves — in private. However, Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, called the proposal, which would keep Bolton out of public testimony, “absurd.”
“We’re not bargaining with them. We want four witnesses and four sets of documents, then the truth will come out,” Schumer said. Added Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee and the lead prosecutor in the trial: “I don’t see how the oath of impartiality can be interpreted in any other way than demanding a fair trial that includes witnesses and documents.”
Other Republicans including Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania want reciprocity: bring in Bolton or another Democratic witness in exchange for one from the GOP side.
Closing arguments
On Tuesday, as he was resting his case, Cipollone played video clips from Democrats during the presidential impeachment of Bill Clinton — including several who are now managers of the Trump impeachment trial — in an attempt to depict them as hypocritical for sounding the alarm then about partisan dangers of impeachment. “What they are asking you do is to throw out a successful president on the eve of an election, with no basis, and in violation of the Constitution,” Cipollone said. “Why not trust the American people with this decision?”
Democrats, meanwhile, say Trump’s refusal to allow administration officials to testify only reinforces the White House is hiding evidence. The White House has had Bolton’s manuscript for about a month, according to a letter from Bolton’s attorney.
What’s next
The case now moves toward written questions, with senators on both sides getting 16 hours over two days to pose queries. A vote on whether to hear witnesses in the trial is expected Friday.
Republicans are being warned that even if they agree to call Bolton to testify or try to access his manuscript, the White House will block him, beginning a weekslong court battle over executive privilege and national security. Some Republican senators said they are happy to read Bolton’s manuscript on their own time. Others said they simply don’t trust Bolton’s word.