Item by item, the impeachment trial rules enacted by Senate Republicans are blatantly unfair to the public interest, but one rule in particular deserves more criticism than it yet has received.

Even after stacking the deck against calling any witnesses in the first place, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t satisfied. His rules provide that even if, after what amounts to nearly a week of this trial, senators do vote to allow witnesses, those witnesses must first be “deposed” outside the Senate chamber and then senators must vote again before hearing them as live witnesses.