Tag: Sen. McConnell

Republicans Falsely Claim To Have Heard Witnesses In Trump Trial

The Senate Republican majority is all but set to vote to acquit Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, without hearing any witness testimony whatsoever.

Despite this, many senators have been misleadingly suggesting that witness testimony was in fact part of the trial.

The Senate Republican Communications Center, part of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office, posted a list of “Senate Trial Facts” Friday afternoon, intended to demonstrate why the GOP believed it was “time to move on.” Continue reading.

Why Won’t McConnell Let You Watch The Senators At Trial?

Even if you’ve been watching gavel-to-gavel television coverage of the Senate’s impeachment trial, there’s little you’ve been able to see beyond Chief Justice John Roberts and individuals talking at a lectern in front of a slab of busy marble.

There’s no sight of the senators on the floor.

This is unusual, as there are usually multiple cameras in the chamber during Senate proceedings. Normally, you’d see democracy in action, but not this time, when democracy is at stake. Continue reading.

McConnell, Romney vie for influence over Trump’s trial

The Hill logoThe fight over calling additional witnesses at President Trump‘s impeachment trial has turned into a struggle for influence between Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney.  

The two Republican leaders — one the Senate majority leader, the other the GOP’s 2012 nominee for president — have two very different agendas.

McConnell has staked his reelection to a seventh term on helping Trump implement his agenda and has made clear that he is closely coordinating trial strategy with the White House.

What did Mitch McConnell know about Bolton bombshell — and when did he know it?

AlterNet logoSenate Republicans are reportedly feeling “blindsided” by the revelation from John Bolton’s upcoming book that Donald Trump personally told the former national security adviser that he was withholding aid to Ukraine until he got his investigations into Democrats and the Bidens. They want to know who in the White House knew about this and why it was withheld from them, they say. They should be looking closer to home, at their majority leader, Mitch McConnell, if indeed this news came as a total shock to them.

Bolton’s lawyer said he provided the manuscript of his book to the White House on Dec. 30. That’s two weeks after McConnell promised Sean Hannity on Fox News, “Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with White House Counsel. There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this.” Just a few days after that interview, McConnell told reporters, “I’m not an impartial juror. This is a political process. There’s not anything judicial about it. […] I would anticipate we will have a largely partisan outcome in the Senate. I’m not impartial about this at all.” He also said that it was the House’s “duty to investigate” and not the Senate’s, and that “we certainly do not need ‘jurors’ to start brainstorming witness lists for the prosecution.” Continue reading.

 

A Really Long List of Evidence McConnell Wants to Cover Up

A trial without documents or witnesses is a cover-up. This isn’t about a handful of papers; it’s about multiple first-hand witnesses and a paper trail that will provide critical information about the charges against Trump.

Americans want and deserve a fair trial. But just look at all the directly relevant evidence that Trump and McConnell are trying to sweep under the rug:

These witnesses…

  • Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton said he is willing to testify before the Senate, but Republicans refuse to let him.
  • At Trump’s direction, his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney directly coordinated the plot to withhold Ukraine’s security assistance and White House meeting until Ukraine announced an investigation into Trump’s political opponent.
  • Michael Duffey is a key witness to Trump’s abuse of power, and he must testify before the Senate. Duffey, a political appointee at OMB, has intricate knowledge of the military aid freeze that Trump demanded.
  • Robert Blair was a top aide to Trump’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who coordinated Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukraine. Blair followed Trump’s directive not to comply with the impeachment investigation and has refused to testify, but we need to hear from him.

White House documents related to these events and issues…

  • The White House’s internal meetings discussing the Ukraine scheme, including the firing of Ambassador Yovanovitch.
  • Trump’s request for investigations into interference in the 2016 presidential election and his political rival.
  • Trump’s direct communications with President Zelensky.
  • Trump’s unlawful hold of the $391 million of military aid.
  • Concerns of White House officials reported to NSC legal counsel.
  • The Intelligence Community Inspector General Whistleblower complaint.

These State Department documents…

  • Emails from Ambassador Gordon Sondland regarding Trump’s demand that Ukraine announce political investigations. Those emails were sent to some of Trump’s top aides and advisors, including Mulvaney, Pompeo, and Rick Perry.
  • Notes from Ambassador Bill Taylor, who described a “little notebook” in which he would “take notes on conversations.”
  • Contemporaneous memos written by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent about conversations he’d witnessed related to the aid freeze.
  • The first-person cable Ambassador Taylor sent to Pompeo expressing concerns about the aid freeze.
  • Records related to Pompeo’s communications with Rudy Giuliani.
These OMB documents…
  • 20 emails the White House is refusing to release between Robert Blair and Michael Duffey.
  • Documents collected in the White House review, including communications between officials in the White House, National Security Council, OMB, and the State Department that reportedly paint an “unflattering” picture of the administration’s response as the White House tried to find “an after-the-fact justification” for Trump’s hold on military aid.
  • Michael Duffey’s June 19, 2019, email to DOD that “the President has questions” about the security assistance.
  • Robert Blair’s July 12, 2019, email to Michael Duffey stating that “the President is directing a hold on military support funding for Ukraine.”
  • Michael Duffey’s email—less than two hours after Trump’s July 25 call with President Zelensky—instructing DOD to continue to “formalize” the hold on security assistance.
  • An August 2019 memo drafted by OMB’s National Security Division, International Affairs Division, and Office of Legal Counsel to Acting OMB Director Russell Vought about Ukraine security assistance.
  • Michael Duffey’s August 30, 2019, email to DOD stating that there was “clear direction from POTUS” to continue the hold.
These heavily redacted documents released late last week…
  • New York Times’s Ken Vogel: “NEW DOCS: At 11:58pm, the @WhiteHouse released nearly 200 pages of OMB emails related to Ukraine, including a bevy of emails to/from the officials Senate Dems want to subpoena. On quick read, they are so heavily redacted as to be almost indecipherable.”
And so many more that we don’t even know to ask for.

Senate Republicans confident they’ll win fight on witnesses

The Hill logoSenate Republican leaders feel confident they will have the votes to block the Democrats’ attempt to subpoena additional witnesses and documents in President Trump’s impeachment trial, which could allow the proceeding to wrap up by the end of next week.

While the House impeachment managers have one more day to lay out their case against the president, GOP leaders don’t think there are four Republican votes to subpoena additional evidence to extend the trial, according to multiple Senate GOP sources.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) at most can win three Republican votes to subpoena White House witnesses such as former National Security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and likely will not even get that. Continue reading.

House managers accuse McConnell of setting up ‘rigged’ trial

The Hill logoThe team of House Democrats arguing their case for impeachment in the Senate are slamming the trial resolution put forward by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), describing the compressed schedule as an attempt to cover up President Trump‘s conduct.

The resolution, circulated by McConnell on Monday night, would give the House Democrats 24 hours over the course of two days to make their opening arguments to impeach and remove Trump from office over his contacts with Ukraine. The same time constraints would be placed on the White House team defending Trump.

“A White House-driven and rigged process, with a truncated schedule designed to go late into the night and further conceal the President’s misconduct, is not what the American people expect or deserve,” the impeachment managers wrote in a statement. Continue reading.

McConnell proposes compressed schedule for impeachment trial

The Hill logoHouse impeachment managers will have 24 hours over two days to make their opening arguments when they begin to present their case against President Trump to the Senate Wednesday, according to a resolution circulated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

President Trump’s team similarly will have two days to present their arguments and then senators will have a chance to ask questions and consider subpoenas of witnesses.

The resolution, as expected, does not require additional witnesses to be subpoenaed and does not allow House prosecutors to admit evidence into the Senate trial record until after the opening arguments are heard. Continue reading.

NOTE:  The final schedule is revised from this.

‘Weak’: Former White House counsel breaks down why McConnell’s arguments on impeachment ‘precedent’ are deeply flawed

AlterNet logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t consider himself an “impartial juror” in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial and that he will be coordinating with Trump in the weeks ahead. One of the Kentucky Republican’s arguments is that Trump’s impeachment, unlike the impeachment of Present Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, has not been handled in a fair way. But former White House Counsel Bob Bauer, in a January 16 article for Benjamin Wittes’ Lawfare website, lays out some of reasons why McConnell’s arguments on impeachment “precedent” are misleading.

McConnell has argued that Trump’s impeachment in the U.S. House of Representatives was handled in an overtly “partisan” manner by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and other Democrats — while Clinton’s impeachment in the late 1990s was not. Bauer totally disagrees.

“McConnell’s history is weak,” Bauer asserts. “More than 90% of the House Republicans voted for Clinton’s impeachment; more than 90% of Republican senators voted for convicting him. By any measure, among lawmakers, there was overwhelming Republican Party support for ousting a Democratic president from office. McConnell’s professed claims of historically unprecedented partisanship is founded on the pointless distinction between fully party-line and just-over-90% party-line support.” Continue reading.

Trump’s trial a major test for McConnell, Schumer

The Hill logoThe stakes for McConnell and Schumer, who have been longtime political adversaries, are high.

In 1999, Democrats scored a big victory in President Clinton’s impeachment trial by convincing a handful of Republicans to cross the aisle and vote against the two articles of impeachment passed by the House. Ten Republicans voted against Article I charging Clinton with perjury and five Republicans voted against Article II charging the president with obstruction of justice.
Clinton and his allies hailed it as an acquittal and saw depriving Republicans — who controlled the chamber with 55 seats — of a majority vote for impeachment as a major victory. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) was spotted exchanging high fives on media row in the Russell Rotunda immediately after the vote.

If Schumer can convince four Senate Republicans to vote to subpoena additional witnesses and documents, as he has demanded for weeks, it would be a big win. And if he can convince any Republicans to vote for articles of impeachment — something that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) failed to do in the House — it will be a bigger victory. Continue reading.