Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is confident the Senate would vote to call up witnesses and documents he has requested for a January trial weighing articles of impeachment against President Trump.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters at a news conference Monday his request for testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and two other officials would win approval from the Senate, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 53-47.
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Four Republicans would have to side with Schumer to subpoena the witnesses.
“I expect to have the support from Democrats and Republicans, because the argument is so strong, and many Republicans have voiced to me and many of my colleagues privately that they think what the president did is wrong, but they’re just not sure enough facts have been presented to make the unimpeachable case of high crimes and misdemeanors,” Schumer said. “This is the way to do it, the way we outlined.”
Schumer sent a letter on Monday to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, asking him to back calling the witnesses.
House Democrats are poised to approve two articles impeaching Trump for obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. Democrats allege Trump withheld security aid from Ukraine to coerce Ukrainian leaders to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and Democrats suspected of working to undermine Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In addition to Bolton and Mulvaney, Schumer wants the Senate to subpoena Mulvaney aide Robert Blair and Michael Duffey, the associate director for national security for the Office of Management and Budget.
The four officials have refused to testify in the House impeachment investigation. Schumer also wants the Senate to subpoena “communications between administration officials about the withholding of the Ukraine military assistance and its requests for certain investigations to be announced by the government of Ukraine.”
Schumer opposed calling up witnesses when Republicans impeached President Bill Clinton in 1998.
Schumer on Monday explained that he opposed the GOP calling up witnesses in 1998 who had already testified in the Clinton House impeachment proceedings, including Monica Lewinsky, whose sexual relationship with the president and his denial of it led to Clinton’s impeachment.
“There were all the obvious reasons why they did not want a witness like Monica Lewinsky testifying in public,” Schumer said. “I was there, and it related to what the questions might be about, that the whole nation, including children, would be watching. A totally different situation; there’s no analogy.”
Schumer would not agree to a deal that would call up witnesses Trump and some GOP lawmakers may want to hear from, including the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint led to the impeachment proceedings, or Hunter Biden, who earned a lucrative job on a Ukrainian gas company board while his father, Joe Biden, was vice president. Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, who, as vice president, allegedly moved to oust a prosecutor who was targeting the gas company.
“I think the trial should be focused on the facts that the House presented, not on conspiracy theories that some established liar puts forward and then someone says let’s hear if the conspiracy theory is correct, which has no relevance to the facts here,” Schumer said. “So, we ought to stick to the facts, and if there are other witnesses who might have witnessed what happened, who might have very strong evidence on the facts that the House presented, I certainly want to hear who they are.”
