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Surprise! Senate Must Vote To Admit House Evidence In Impeachment Trial

   DailyWire.com
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) answers questions during a press conference following a weekly policy lunch at the U.S. Capitol on December 03, 2019 in Washington, DC. McConnell answered a range of questions related primarily to the ongoing impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump, and continued funding of the federal government.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is sticking close to the 1999 Senate impeachment rules, inked ahead of then-President Bill Clinton’s Senate trial, but he’s instituting a few key changes, including one that will have the Senate voting to admit the evidence compiled in the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry — something Democrats are suddenly very angry about.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) decried McConnell’s trial outline as that of a “rigged” process, accusing the majority leader of rushing opening arguments, cramming both the prosecution’s and the defense’s statements in to barely 48 hours, and of denying the work of the House.

After initial arguments, McConnell has it set up so that Senators will decide which aspects of the House investigation are allowed to come into play in the Senate, per Roll Call, meaning that while some testimony — taken during the House Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee hearings — might be allowed in, evidence “discovered” later, like text messages from Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, won’t come into play unless Senators vote to allow the presentation of further evidence and additional witness testimony.

In 1999, Schumer pointed out in statements to press made Monday night, the House articles were admitted automatically. But McConnell’s change is strategic. Democrats, including Schumer and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the House investigator-turned-impeachment manager, want to bolster the House’s case against the President  — which even The New York Times admitted is thin — with a second, fresh case made in the Senate.

Schumer, whose bid to hold the articles of impeachment hostage to force McConnell to agree to, at least, additional witness testimony, failed miserably and publicly, railed against McConnell’s restrictions.

“After reading his resolution, it’s clear Senator McConnell is hell-bent on making it much more difficult to get witnesses and documents and intent on rushing the trial through. On something as important as impeachment, Senator McConnell’s resolution is nothing short of a national disgrace,” Schumer said in a statement released Monday night.

“Sen. McConnell’s proposed rules depart dramatically from the Clinton precedent — in ways that are designed to prevent the Senate and the American people from learning the full truth about President Trump’s actions that warranted his impeachment,” he continued. “The McConnell rules don’t even allow the simple, basic step of admitting the House record into evidence at the trial.”

The House will attempt to bolster their own case, if Senate testimony is not allowed, by issuing subpoena’s to several new, “key” witnesses who could have been called in the initial investigation but were not. Former national security advisor John Bolton is expected to be called to testify in the House by Democrats hopeful that Bolton’s answers might convince their Senate colleagues to accept witnesses.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) also suggested, last week, that the House could view additional evidence from Parnas — “several handwritten notes, emails, encrypted messages, and other documents,” according to Politico — in additional sessions.

But if Democrats were looking for sympathy over the “unfair” rules from moderate Republicans, they found none. On Tuesday morning, just before the trial convened in the Senate, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), no fan of President Donald Trump and a regular critic of McConnell, told reporters that he believed the rule changes were fair and designed to encourage expediency, not secrecy.

 

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