KEY SWING-VOTE GOP SEN.ALEXANDER COMES OUT AGAINST WITNESSES, PAVING WAY FOR IMMINENT TRUMP AQUITTAL
Foxnews
The Senate impeachment trial question-and-answer phase wrapped up Thursday night after a total of 180 interrogatories, setting up a pivotal vote Friday on whether or not to subpoena additional witnesses and documents, or to hold a final vote on whether to impeach or acquit President Trump -- and all indications are that the final roll call on the witness question will come down to the wire.
Fox News is told that retiring Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, a key swing vote on the matter, will announce his decision within minutes, in a dramatic capper to a day marked by tension, confrontation and the occasional head-scratcher.
"The senator said he will make a decision after the questions and answers have concluded," a spokesperson for Alexander told Fox News earlier in the day. "The current plan is to release that decision shortly after.”
Any witness resolution would likely require four Republican defections in the Senate, because in the event of a 50-50 tie, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts is likely to abstain rather than assert his debatable power to cast a tie-breaking vote.
But, it remained possible Roberts would weigh that issue separately, as the precise contours of his power are not legally clear.
Another moderate swing-vote Republican, Sen.
Lisa Murkowski, seemingly tipped her hand during the question-and-answer session late Thursday. Her interrogatory said that former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who authored a book that reportedly implicates President Trump in tying Ukrainian military aid to an investigation of Joe and Hunter Biden, has "direct knowledge" relevant to the trial.
“This dispute about material facts weighs in favor of calling additional witnesses with direct knowledge," she asked. "Why should this body not call Ambassador [John] Bolton?”
However, later in the night, Murkowski and Alexander joined other GOP senators to ask Trump's defense team whether, even if everything Democrats and Bolton said was true, then: "Isn't it true that the allegations would still not rise to the level of an impeachable offense and would add nothing to this cause?
That signaled sympathy for the core of Trump's defense team's argument, which is that even if Trump did condition foreign aid on an investigation of a political opponent, such conduct would not justify the removal of a president by the Senate in an election year.
Republicans, who have a 53-47 majority in the chamber, have suggested to Fox News that they would amend any witness resolution that subpoenas Bolton to also require the appearance of several additional witnesses favorable to the Trump administration -- likely killing support in the Senate for the whole witness package altogether.
Trump defense counsel Patrick Philbin said late Thursday that if Democrats want to "go down the road" of adding more witnesses, they would push aggressively to learn more about the Ukraine whistleblower's contact with Democrats in the House prior to filing his complaint.
Additionally, Trump's defense team argued that Democrats contradicted themselves by saying their case was "overwhelming" and that Trump was guilty beyond "any doubt" -- even as they insist that they need to call more witnesses and see more evidence.
Momentum has been shifting away from a vote in favor of witnesses, ever since Trump tweeted a link to an interview of Bolton in August 2019 where he discusses Ukraine policy. In the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interview clip, Bolton made no mention of any illicit quid pro quo, and acknowledged, as Republicans have claimed, that combating "corruption" in Ukraine was a "high priority" for the Trump administration.
Trump captioned the video: "GAME OVER!"
Bolton also called Trump's communications with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "warm and cordial," without mentioning any misconduct. It seemingly contradicted reported assertions in Bolton's forthcoming book alleging that Trump explicitly told him he wanted to tie military aid to Ukraine to an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. (Zelensky has said his communications with Trump involved no pressure for any investigation.)
What's ahead
The impeachment trial reconvenes at 1 p.
m. ET Friday. The Senate will immediately go to up to four hours of arguments by the Democratic impeachment managers and the defense counsel. There could also be deliberation by senators, which might involve a closed session or even debate among the senators themselves on the floor.
Regardless, once that’s done, the Senate will debate a proposal to subpoena documents or witnesses. That could consume up to two hours on the floor – and will not unfold until the evening.
After that’s complete, the Senate will take what is termed the “gateway” vote as to whether or not to open the door to subpoenaing witnesses or documents.
If senators vote to open up the gateway to witnesses or documents, a multitude of proposals could follow over several hours from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-Ny. These would likely be various slates of witness proposals. Democrats would like to get Republicans on the record opposing certain witnesses. Democrats would then try to boomerang that vote on vulnerable Republicans this fall
If for some reason the Senate votes in favor of an individual witness, then the trial is far from done.
The Senate trial rules require senators to depose the witness in private. That could come in days or weeks, but in the meantime, the trial on the floor would go dark. (However, the Senate could consider other business during this period. The Senate would eventually have to vote to summon a given witness to the floor.)
If the Senate rejects the gateway vote, the impeachment trial is likely on a glide path to conclusion. There could be additional debate after that; the Senate could consider a motion to dismiss the articles; or there could be final verdict votes on both articles of impeachment.
Last December, McConnell published the Senate schedule for 2020. He only put 11 months on the calendar, completely leaving out January, because no one quite knew what was in store for the Senate with a possible impeachment trial. If the Senate wraps this up late Friday night, McConnell correctly predicted the length of the trial.
It remains possible the Senate could take final votes on each article of impeachment -- there will be separate, distinct votes on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- late Friday night, in the wee hours of Saturday morning or later in the day Saturday.
Several Democratic senators have privately signaled they want the trial to wrap up quicky -- partially out of exhaustion, but also because Sens.
Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren urgently want to get back to Iowa to campaign ahead of next week's critical caucuses.
Dems' Headscratchers
House impeachment manager Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised eyebrows during the proceedings Thursday -- including from Roberts.
At one point Thursday afternoon, Jeffries argued that the Steele dossier -- written by a foreign ex-spy and dependent in part on Russian sources -- did not constitute improper foreign election interference because the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee (DNC) paid for the dossier, rather than receiving it at no cost.
His claim came in response to a question from North Carolina GOP Sen. Richard Burr that was aimed at arguing how the Democrats wouldn't want to apply their standards to their own candidates.
"Hillary Clinton's campaign and [the] Democratic National Committee hired a retired foreign spy to work with Russian contacts to build a dossier of opposition research against their political opponent, Donald Trump.
Under the House managers' standard, would the Steele dossier be considered foreign interference in the U.S. election, a violation of the law, and/or an impeachable offense?" Burr asked.
Jeffries then rose and declared, "The analogy is, uh, not applicable to the present situation because, first, to the extent that opposition research was obtained, it was opposition research that was purchased."
He then accused Republicans of avoiding facts and trying to distract from Trump's conduct.
Jeffries' response drew mockery online from a slew of commentators -- "Cut a check to Ukraine. We're done here," wrote one -- and an immediate rebuke in the chamber from Trump attorney Jay Sekulow.
"So, I guess you can buy -- this is what it sounds like -- you can buy foreign interference? You can purchase it? You can purchase their opposition research and I guess it's OK?" he asked.
One of the dossier's foreign sources was the former deputy foreign minister for Russia, Vyacheslav Trubnikov -- a known Russian intelligence officer.
Much of the Steele dossier has been proved unsubstantiated, including the dossier's claims that the Trump campaign was paying hackers based out of a nonexistent Russian consulate in Miami or that ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen traveled to Prague to conspire with Russians. Special Counsel Robert Mueller also was unable to substantiate the dossier's claims that Page had received a large payment relating to the sale of a share of Rosneft, a Russian oil giant, or that a lurid blackmail tape involving the president existed.
Nevertheless, the FBI relied heavily on the dossier to obtain a secret surveillance warrant to monitor a former member of the Trump campaign, Carter Page. News of that warrant leaked, and together with the dossier's salacious accusations, fueled months of unfounded speculation that the Trump campaign had conspired with Russia.
Separately, at the Senate impeachment trial Thursday, Warren posed a question that, by rule, was read aloud by Roberts -- and even Democrats in the chamber appeared visibly puzzled by the interrogatory.
"At a time when large majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court and the Constitution?" Roberts read from the card handed to him by the clerk.
When he finished reading the question -- explicitly posed to the House Impeachment managers -- Roberts pursed his lips and shot a chagrined look.
After a moment, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead impeachment manager, appeared at the dais to answer the question -- standing mere feet in front of Roberts.
Schiff appeared to try to distance himself from Warren's question, offering a short answer to the question before speaking at length about a tangential exchange.
"I would not say that it leads to a loss of confidence in the chief justice," Schiff said, adding that Roberts has thus far "presided admirably."
He then quickly pivoted to a criticism of President Trump and a conversation he had about the impeachment trial with Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J.
Whistleblower showdown
Justice Roberts shut down a question Thursday from Sen. Rand Paul that mentioned the name of the alleged Ukraine whistleblower, prompting Paul to storm out of the impeachment trial and hold an impromptu press conference to read the question anyway.
The clash came after the chief justice, who is presiding over the trial, similarly rebuffed Paul a day earlier. (Paul, according to reporter Niels Lesniewski, was apparently fuming afterward, shouting to a staffer: "I don't want to have to stand up to try and fight for recognition. ... If I have to fight for recognition, I will.")
Federal law protects whistleblowers only from retaliation in the workplace and does not ensure their anonymity; Republicans have disputed whether this particular whistleblower would even qualify for those limited protections, saying his complaint concerns a policy dispute and does not allege criminal or civil wrongdoing by the president.
“As you may have noticed, we had something slightly atypical downstairs.
I asked a question and the question was refused,” Paul, R-Ky., told reporters after exiting the Senate chamber and dashing upstairs to the Senate TV studio.
After seeing Paul’s question on a notecard, Roberts ruled against presenting it in the trial: "The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted,” he said.
Paul asserted that Roberts' ruling was wrong because no one knows if the name of the person on his question card is the whistleblower.
“I think it was an incorrect finding," Paul said.
Paul wanted to ask whether Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, and the White House counsel were aware that an intel committee staff member had a close relationship with the reported whistleblower when they were on the National Security Council together.
“How do you respond to reports that [they] may have worked together to plot impeaching the president before there were formal House impeachment proceedings?” Paul said he wrote on the card.
Schiff has made public inconsistent statements concerning the House Intelligence Committee's contacts with the whistleblower. He first denied that his panel had such contact, then reversed course and admitted that members of the committee had spoken to the whistleblower.
Paul's question reportedly included the names of two individuals. Fox News has not confirmed the whistleblower's name.
Paul argued that since Schiff contends he doesn't know the identity of the whistleblower, how could anyone know if someone deserves whistleblower protections.