Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans have enough votes to set rules for President Trump’s impeachment trial similar to those used in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, shutting out Democratic demands for witnesses.
“We have the votes once the impeachment trial has begun to pass a resolution essentially very similar to … the Clinton trial,” McConnell said after meeting privately with GOP lawmakers on Tuesday.
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“What was good enough for President Clinton’s impeachment trial should be good enough for President Trump,” the Kentucky Republican said.
The start of an impeachment trial in the Senate remains in limbo, however. McConnell said he’s planning, at least for now, to wait for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, to send over two articles of impeachment that House Democrats passed last month. Pelosi is withholding the articles to demand that McConnell first commit to calling witnesses sought by Democrats.
McConnell briefed Republicans in a closed-door meeting on his plan to forge ahead with the rules established unanimously by Senate lawmakers ahead of Clinton’s impeachment trial.
That trial, which began 21 years ago on Tuesday, allowed impeachment prosecutors from the House as well as White House defense lawyers to present their cases, followed by written questions submitted by senators, who are not allowed to speak.
After that process is complete, lawmakers voted on whether to interview witnesses and agreed to videotaped testimony.
McConnell said whether to allow witnesses “is obviously the most contentious part” and, under the rules he plans to pass, “that will be addressed at that time and not before the trial begins.”
All Democrats are likely to vote against McConnell’s plan.
The Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, wants Republicans to agree to a pretrial witness list that includes former national security adviser John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and others.
“Whoever heard of a trial without witnesses and documents?” Schumer asked Tuesday, accusing Republicans of participating in “a cover-up.”
Senate Republicans are seeking to speed up a trial and a vote that is all but certain to acquit the president.
“I hope that will end this week,” McConnell said. “It continues to be my hope that the speaker will send them over.”
