Sen. Josh Hawley (R-SC), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has drafted motions to subpoena Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, his son, Hunter Biden, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and the Ukraine whistleblower.
“The Missouri Republican is preparing to file subpoena requests for witnesses and documents that Democrats and Republicans alike won’t want to vote on, a tactic intended to convince a handful of senators to sink a vote next week to consider new evidence in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial,” Politico reported. “Hawley’s strategy harmonizes with plans from GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky to force votes to hear from Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son who was on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.”
On Twitter, Hawley wrote, “I have drafted motions to subpoena Adam Schiff, the ‘whistleblower,’ Hunter Biden, and Joe Biden to testify. If the Senate calls witnesses, I will ask for votes on all these next week.”
I have drafted motions to subpoena Adam Schiff, the “whistleblower,” Hunter Biden, and Joe Biden to testify. If the Senate calls witnesses, I will ask for votes on all these next week https://t.co/NW1fuyYVF4
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 25, 2020
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has sought to create a narrative that Senate Republicans are engaged in a cover-up because they are not allowing additional witnesses or evidence to be introduced into the trial outside of what the Democrat-controlled House already presented.
Schumer’s remarks contradict his past statements on the issue when he said that it made no sense for the Senate to call witnesses to testify when they were not called by the House.
Politico added, “Hawley would also seek communications among the whistleblower, Schiff and his staff, transcripts of [Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael] Atkinson’s congressional testimony, communications between the House impeachment managers and Democratic presidential candidates as well as documents related to Biden’s drive to oust former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin.”
Republicans kicked off their defense of Trump on Saturday in the Senate with deputy White House counsel Michael Purpura laying out the following six points that are going to be the outline of Trump’s defense:
- “The transcript shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything. The paused security assistance funds aren’t even mentioned on the call.”
- “President Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that there was no quid pro quo and no pressure on them to review anything.”
- “President Zelensky and high-ranking Ukrainian officials did not even know, did not even know, the security assistance was paused until the end of August, over a month after the July 25 call.”
- “Not a single witness testified that the President himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance, a presidential meeting, or anything else.”
- “The security assistance flowed on September 11 and a presidential meeting took place on September 25 without the Ukrainian government announcing any investigations.”
- “The Democrats blind drive to impeach the president does not and cannot change the fact, as attested to by the Democrats own witnesses, that President Trump has been a better friend and stronger supporter of Ukraine than his predecessor.”
This report has been updated to include additional information.