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| FILE PHOTO: House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) walks along the Ohio Clock Corridor following the first day of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Senate Impeachment Trial in Washington, U.S., January 22, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo |
The U.S. Senate is expected to wrap up the initial phase of President Donald Trumpโs impeachment trial before turning on Friday to the explosive question of whether to call witnesses such as former national security adviser John Bolton.
Republicans who control the Senate said there was a chance the trial could end on Friday with Trumpโs acquittal, leaving him in office and rendering moot the articles of impeachment Democrats approved in the House of Representatives in December.
An acquittal would allow the Republican president to claim vindication and put the threat to his presidency behind him just as Americans begin focusing on the Democratic race to choose his challenger in the Nov. 3 election.
Iowa holds the first election contest of the year on Monday. Trump will be there on Thursday night for a rally to promote his record and skewer his opponents.
Lawyers for Trump and the House Democrats who are managing the impeachment prosecution will spend a second day on Thursday answering questions about the case written down by lawmakers and read aloud by black-robed U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts.
Then, probably on Friday, each side will present what amount to closing arguments, before the senators move to the central question of whether to call witnesses.
Democrats are demanding witnesses in order to shed more light on Trumpโs attempt to persuade Ukraine President Volodmyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.
To force the issue, they need to persuade at least four Republican senators to vote with them to assure a majority vote in the 100-seat chamber, an effort the top Democrat in the Senate has called an uphill fight.
Even if witnesses are called, Democrats hold out scant hope of ultimately mustering the two-thirds majority needed to remove Trump from office.
Bolton this week emerged as a potential witness after a report โ which he has not denied โ that he planned to say in an upcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to freeze $391 million in U.S. military aid for Ukraine until it investigated Biden and the former vice presidentโs son, Hunter.
Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York argued that Trump wanted to โrig an electionโ by inviting foreign interference in the 2020 election.
โThe facts are the facts,โ said Nadler. โThe president is a danger to the United States โฆ and he must be brought to heel.โ
Senator John Barrasso, the No. 3 Republican in seniority, said it was possible the trial could end on Friday without witnesses being called in spite of pressure from Democrats.
โThe momentum is clearly in the direction of moving to final judgment on Friday,โ he said. Other Republican senators were predicting a similar outcome.
Democrats were not conceding defeat, however.
โThereโs tremendous pressure from a vindictive, nasty president on every Republican senator, but I think (as) they sit there โฆ weโve got a real shot to get witnesses and documents,โ Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday.
While the Senate is expected to acquit Trump and leave him in office no matter what happens, allowing witnesses could inflict political damage on him as his re-election bid picks up steam.
REUTERS
