Trump trial: Partisan bickering begins; Mcconnell relents on time limit.
Mcconnell eases impeachment limits
WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell abruptly backed off some of his proposed rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Tuesday, easing plans for a tight two-day schedule and agreeing that House evidence will be included. He acted after protests from senators, including fellow Republicans.
The trial quickly burst into a partisan fight at the Capitol as the president’s lawyers opened arguments Tuesday in support of Mcconnell’s plan. Democrats objected loudly to Mcconnell’s initially proposed rules, and some Republicans made their concerns known in private at a GOP lunch.
The Republican leader submitted an amended proposal after meeting behind closed doors with his senators as the trial opened. The handwritten changes would add an extra day for each side’s opening arguments and stipulate that evidence from the Democratic House’s impeachment hearings be included in the record.
There is still deep disagreement about calling additional witnesses.
“It’s time to start with this trial,” said White House counsel Pat Cipollone, the president’s lead lawyer in brief remarks as the proceedings opened in public.
Chief Justice John Roberts gaveled open the session, senators having taken an oath last week to do “impartial justice” as jurors. House prosecutors were on one side, Trump’s team on the other, in the well of the Senate, as senators sat silent at their desks.
Senators were stunned by Mcconnell’s shift, which came during a private lunch and briefly delayed the start of the historic session.
Annie Clark, a spokeswoman for Republican Sen. Susan Collins, said that she and others had raised concerns. The Maine senator sees the changes as significant improvements, Clark said.
The turnaround was a swift lesson as the White House’s wishes run into the reality of the Senate. The White House wanted a session crammed into a shorter period to both expedite the trial and shift more of the proceedings into late night, according to a person familiar with the matter but unauthorized to discuss it in public.
Trump himself, in Davos, Switzerland, for an economic conference, denounced the proceedings as “a total hoax” and said, “I’m sure it’s going to work out fine.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York offered the first amendment to the organizing rules for the trial, to subpoena all documents from the White House relevant to Democrats’ allegations against Trump. It was tabled on a 53-47 party-line vote. A second amendment from Schumer, DNY, on subpoenas of State Department documents, also was tabled on a 53-47 vote.
Democrats had warned that the rules package from Trump’s ally, the Senate GOP leader, could force midnight sessions that would keep most Americans in the dark and create a sham proceeding.
“This is not a process for a fair trial, this is the process for a rigged trial,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-CA., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee leading the prosecution, told reporters. He called it a “cover-up.”
Schiff opened his arguments before the Senate playing a video of Trump calling for more witnesses to testify. Schiff noted the sudden change in proposed rules, made moments before he spoke.
“The facts will come out in the end,” Schiff said. “The question is, will it come out in time? ”
Mcconnell said, “The president’s lawyers will finally receive a level playing field.”
The Democrats say the prospect of middle-of-the-night proceedings, without allowing new witnesses or even the voluminous House records of the trial, would leave the public without crucial information about Trump’s political pressure campaign on Ukraine and the White House’s obstruction of the House impeachment probe.
“The Mcconnell rules seem to be designed by President Trump for President Trump,” Schumer said. He vowed to call for a series of votes to amend the rules and demand testimony and documents, but it seemed unlikely Republicans would break from the party to join Democrats.
“This is a historic moment,” Schumer said. “The eyes of America are watching. Republican senators must rise to the occasion.”
Trump’s legal team doesn’t dispute his actions – that he called the president of Ukraine and asked for a “favor” July 25. In fact, the lawyers included the rough transcript of Trump’s conversation as part of its brief submitted ahead of the proceedings.
Instead, the lawyers for the president, led by Cipollone and a Tv-famous legal team including Alan Dershowitz, say the two charges against the president don’t amount to impeachable offenses and Trump committed no crime.