John Bolton revelations raise chances of witnesses in Trump impeachment trial
Chuck
Schumer compares ‘drip, drip, drip’ of news to Watergate
Defense
lawyers to conclude opening statement on Tuesday
Daniel
Strauss in Washington and Tom McCarthy in New York
Tue 28 Jan
2020 18.42 GMTLast modified on Tue 28 Jan 2020 20.51 GMT
The “drip,
drip, drip” of revelations from a forthcoming book by the former national
security adviser John Bolton has raised the possibility that witnesses will be
called in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
It is still
far from certain that witnesses including Bolton will testify, but since Sunday
night, when Bolton’s manuscript was first reported, some more moderate
Republican senators have voiced openness to the prospect, a sticking point for
congressional Democrats in the impeachment trial.
“Certainly
a few days ago [the chance of witnesses being called] was zero and now it’s
something,” Republican strategist Rob Jesmer told the Guardian. “I think that
will massively prolong the trial.”
On Tuesday,
Trump’s lawyers were due to conclude their opening argument in the Senate
trial, made after the House managers put their case.
As senators
headed back into the chamber, it was clear that Bolton’s book was not a one-day
story.
Congress
was still digesting the news, reported by the New York Times on Sunday, that
Bolton says Trump told him he wanted to keep withholding nearly $400m of
security aid to Ukraine until officials there agreed to help investigate
political rivals including former vice-president Joe Biden and his family.
On Monday
night, the New York Times returned to the well, reporting that in the
forthcoming book The Room Where It Happened, Bolton writes that he told the
attorney general, William Barr, he was concerned Trump was doing personal
favors for autocratic foreign leaders.
News of
Bolton’s book has spurred some more moderate Republican senators – Mitt Romney
of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine – to signal openness to supporting the
calling of witnesses. Doing so could extend the length of the trial, contrary
to the wishes of the White House and the Senate majority leader, Mitch
McConnell.
On Tuesday,
the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said the “drip, drip, drip” of information
from Bolton’s manuscript was “reminiscent of Watergate”, the scandal that led
to the resignation of Richard Nixon.
Schumer
also told reporters: “Mitch McConnell and President Trump wanted a very short
and rushed trial. The longer it goes on, the more likely that more new evidence
will come out that further implicates the president.”
He said
reports about Bolton’s book “should be a warning to every Republican in the
Senate: if you vote with the White House to suppress and cover up evidence, the
odds are strong that the truth will eventually come out”.
The
Oklahoma Republican James Lankford proposed that senators be allowed to read
Bolton’s book manuscript in a sensitive compartmentalized information facility
–commonly known as a Scif – before deciding whether witnesses should be called.
In an interview with CNN, he said the question needed to be resolved “in a
couple of days”.
Cesar
Conda, a former chief of staff to Marco Rubio of Florida who was also a Senate
staffer during the impeachment of Bill Clinton, told the Guardian: “Senator
Lankford’s proposal … should relieve pressure on GOP senators to vote to call
witnesses.”
On both
sides of the aisle, strategists remain unsure about the consequences of Trump’s
impeachment trial. Both Democrats and Republicans have tried to avoid appearing
motivated by partisan gamesmanship. On Monday night, however, the Iowa
Republican senator Joni Ernst pointed to the potential effect on Biden’s
presidential campaign.
“[The] Iowa caucuses are this next Monday
evening,” Ernst told reporters at the Capitol. “And I’m really interested to
see how this discussion … informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those
Dem[ocratic] caucus goers. Will they be supporting VP Biden at this point?”
Jesmer said
an extended trial would hurt both parties.
“I think
the Democrats view this as a zero-sum game and that’s good for them and bad for
the GOP and I think that’s not true at all. I think ultimately it’ll be bad for
both,” he said.
“The longer
it goes on, the worse it is for both parties. Swing voters don’t care. You
can’t find a poll that says they care. The hardcore partisans are the only ones
who care.
“I just
think whether it’s Democrats running for president or Republicans running for
re-election, everyone wants this over with.”
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