Local presence: Coloradans will have key roles.
This week, the Senate trial of President Donald Trump will begin in earnest, with one Coloradan at the prosecutors’ table, two in the jury and many more watching from home.
The seven House impeachment managers, including Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Aurora, prepared for their role as prosecutors of the president over the holiday weekend. On Monday, they toured the Senate floor, which will be their courtroom this month. The Senate will come in at 11 a.m. Mountain time Tuesday and debate the rules. The trial could begin in earnest Wednesday.
In media appearances and thick legal briefs, the two sides — House Democrats like Crow, and the White House’s defense team — made their pre-emptive cases without revealing much trial strategy. The largest question remains unanswered: Who, if anyone, will be called to testify by the two sides? The votes of 51 senators will be needed to call witnesses.
“He has said that his call is a perfect call,” Crow told CNN on Sunday, referring to Trump’s claim that his controversial phone call with Ukraine’s president was flawless. “He has said that he’s done nothing wrong. So, let’s have the people who are in the best position to confirm that come in and testify before the U.S. Senate. It’s what over 70% of the American people are asking for. The president deserves a fair trial; the American people deserve a fair trial. So, let’s have that fair trial.”
“All of the relevant witnesses are on the table. What we have to do is make sure we have documents too,” Crow added. “This can’t be the first trial in American history — the first impeachment trial in American history — where we don’t have documents and witnesses produced by the president.”
Sitting silently as members of the jury will be two Colorado senators who, when they’re not in Washington, can be seen campaigning. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Denver Democrat, is running for president. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Yuma Republican, is running for re-election to the Senate.
In a trial of contrasts — innocent versus guilty; Democrat versus Republican; House versus Senate — the two Coloradans on the jury are one more. Bennet has sought media attention in an increasingly long-shot bid for president, but Gardner has avoided it as he faces one of the toughest Senate re-election fights in America. A New York Times headline on Monday asked bluntly, “Where Is Cory Gardner?”
By Wednesday, he and Bennet will be at their seats in the Senate chamber, two of 100 jurors who will decided whether Trump is guilty of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump’s lawyers consider impeachment to be an illegitimate charade worthy of immediate and outright acquittal, they told reporters Monday.
“The articles of impeachment, as a matter of law, are deficient on their face,” a source working with the president’s legal team said during a White House conference call. Reporters were not permitted to use the source’s name.
“Both the first article, for abuse of power, and the second article, alleging obstruction of Congress, fail to state any violation of law whatsoever,” the source said. “That is insufficient on its face for stating an impeachable offense. In the history of the country, there has never been an attempted impeachment of the president that did not charge a violation of established law — a criminal violation.”
For Crow, a first-term congressman who was surprised to be named an impeachment manager, the trial will bring a level of publicity he’s entirely unfamiliar with. Republicans eager to vindicate the president will await Crow’s every word and facial expression in search of a slip-up or gaffe they can use in their defense of Trump.
Asked on CNN whether the president had committed bribery — one of the clearest justifications for impeachment in the Constitution, but one that House Democrats did not impeach Trump for — Crow said the president “did attempt to bribe and coerce a foreign government official in this case,” referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a leading House Republican, was quick to respond on Twitter: “Saying it doesn’t make it so, Rep. Jason Crow.” She accused Crow of failing to make the case for impeachment, claiming there was “no direct evidence” in the Democrats’ “totally partisan process.”
Steve House, a top Republican challenger to Crow’s re-election bid, criticized the congressman’s facial expressions. During an answer about being chosen to prosecute the president, Crow briefly smiled on CNN. House’s campaign used a clip of the smile to create an online video with the rhetorical question, “Does anyone believe Jason Crow isn’t enjoying trying to remove the president?”
For all the legal and political posturing Monday, it’s unclear what, exactly, the trial will look like. Key questions about timing and witnesses remain unanswered and will be decided by senators Tuesday, the first decision Bennet and Gardner will make as part of the Senate proceedings.
“When the (Constitution’s) framers wrote the impeachment clause, they aimed it squarely at abuse of office for personal gain, betrayal of the national interest through foreign entanglements, and corruption of elections,” Crow and the other six impeachment managers said in a statement Monday.
“President Trump has engaged in the trifecta of constitutional misconduct warranting removal. He is the framers’ worst nightmare come to life.”