Senate votes down Democrats’ fourth attempt to subpoena witnesses and documents
In a party-line, 53-47 vote, the Senate voted down Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s amendment to subpoena acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.
Democrats sought his testimony as someone with “firsthand knowledge” of the campaign to pressure Ukraine into opening politically motivated investigations.
“Mr. Mulvaney was in the loop at each critical stage of President Trump’s scheme,” Jeffries said.
“The subject of this amendment should appear before the Senate if we’re going to have a free and fair trial,” Jeffries argued.
Mulvaney had acknowledged Trump had held up military assistance to Ukraine to pressure the country, before walking back his comments.
“We do that all that time with foreign policy,” Mulvaney had said at a press briefing in October 2019.
Republicans countered by saying the president did nothing wrong.
Michael Purpura, one of the president’s lawyers, said: “this chamber’s role is not to do the House’s job for it.”
“There wasn’t any” quid pro quo, said White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
“Only in DC would someone say it’s wrong to not spend taxpayer dollars fast enough, even if it was on time,” Cipollone quipped.
– Nicholas Wu
Ted Cruz thinks Trump’s impeachment trial will end with an acquittal
Speaking to reporters in the basement of the Capitol, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX., said he didn’t “think we’re going to see a dismissal, and I think a dismissal is not nearly as good an outcome for the president and for the country as will be a final judgment on the merits.”
“I think the judgment here is not going to be a dismissal but rather on acquittal on the merits at the end of both sides having an opportunity to present their case,” he continued.
He criticized Democrats for disagreeing “with the president politically” but not “satisfying the constitutional standard” to remove him.
“If you have the facts, you bang the facts. If you have the law, you bang the law. If you don’t have either, you bang the table. Well, this afternoon we’ve seen a whole lot of table banging,” Cruz continued during his condemnation of Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed Tuesday to subpoena acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
The Senate recessed for dinner until 8 p.m. before debating the proposal.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said there could be votes to subpoena witnesses and documents after opening arguments by the House managers prosecuting the case and Trump’s defense lawyers.
The Senate has already rejected three subpoena requests from Schumer on party-line votes of 53 to 47.
David Adams
Article URL : https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/21/senate-impeachment-trial-trump-rules-witnesses/4493149002/