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By Dayo Benson Editor Politics,Law/Human Rights, New York
United States Senate Friday evening, voted against subpoena of witnesses and documents in the on-going trial of President Donald Trump, paving way for his predicted acquittal. President Trump may be acquitted on Wednesday February 5, 2020, when the Senate would vote on the two articles of impeachment. This is the first time the Senate is conducting a trial without calling witnesses.
The historic vote was sequel to a motion to that effect read by Presiding United States Chief Justice John Robert.
Expectedly, Republican Senators struck down the motion by simple majority votes of 49-51, along party line. Two Republican Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins broke ranks.
With the motion defeated, Republicans sealed the House Managers and Democratic Senators’ hope to turn the trial’s tide in their favour.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in his reaction, described the trial without witnesses and documents as “a perfidy and a tragedy.” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement said there was no need for the Senate to reopen the record with the “overwhelming” evidence the House Managers claimed they presented before the Jurors.
The day eight session began with four hours of arguments from both sides on whether or not to subpoena documents and witnesses. Democrats doubled down on their position that the Senate trial would be unfair without hearing from witnesses. They insisted the witness they demanded had first hand information. “A trial requires witnesses, a trial requires documents”, said one of the House Managers in her submission. They accused President Donald Trump and his defence legal team of hiding the truth. Americans, they contended, desired to know the truth. Democrats wanted four key witnesses, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton, to be called. Bolton had reportedly described the Ukraine saga as a “drug deal.” He also referred to Trump’s personal lawyer Ruddy Giuliani’s shadow foreign policy in Ukraine as a “hand grenade” capable of blowing everyone up. The White House had invoked Executive Privilege to prevent Bolton from testifying. Democrats however maintained that the President should not be allowed to use Executive Privilege to silence a witness whose evidence might contradict him.
In their defence, Trump’s lawyers argued that the two articles of impeachment were defective hence there was no need for new witnesses. They faulted the House Managers’ argument of unfair trial without witnesses. They accused the Managers of being unfair in the conduct of the impeachment proceedings. Despite repeated rebuttals by the Managers, the defence team insisted the President was shut out of one the proceedings. The defence lawyers pointed out that they did not have opportunities to cross examine major witnesses Democrats called during the impeachment proceedings. They described the quest for more witnesses as a smokescreen. The House Managers, they claimed, had primed the proceedings which lasted 78 days, to end before Christmas. They urged the Jurors not to help the Managers do what they failed to do.
After the bout of fierce argument on the issue, the Senate went into a brief closed door deliberation on the way forward through negotiation and compromise. Republicans were divided on how to proceed. A faction wanted the entire process to end Friday night without calling new witnesses. The other faction consisted of Senators who wanted to speak publicly on the Senate floor. Senator McConnell tried to work out a middle ground position. Democrats tried to leverage on the situation. McConnell called for the vote in favour or against calling of witnesses and subpoena documents. Again, the motion failed by 51-49. At the instance of the Majority Leader, the Senate went on recess.
When the Senate reconvened at 7p.m, Senator McConnell read the resolutions that would guide proceedings on Monday, February 3 and Wednesday, February 5, 2020. Subsequent amendments which Senator Schumer proposed to call star witnesses failed after votes were taken on them. The drama continues on Monday when the Senate trial resumes.