Republican senator says she’s open to Democrat-favored impeachment trial with witnesses for Donald Trump as Chuck Schumer says revelation that Mike Pompeo and John Bolton pleaded with president to release aid is a ‘game changer’
- Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she’s open to having witnesses testify at President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial
- She made the comments Monday though wondered why the House didn’t pursue subpoenas and instead voted to impeach Trump just days before Christmas
- Collins comments come as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer continues to press for witnesses at the forthcoming trial
- On Monday, Schumer pointed to new New York Times reporting that further involved high-level officials in the Ukraine military aid scheme
Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she’s open to having witnesses at President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
‘I am open to witnesses,’ she said in an interview Monday with Maine Public Radio. ‘I think it’s premature to decide who should be called until we see the evidence that is presented and get the answers to the questions that we senators can submit through the Chief Justice to both sides.’
Collins’ comments came as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer continued to push for witness testimony in the Senate, pointing to a New York Times report out Sunday that showed all four witnesses the Senate Democrats have requested – Mick Mulvaney, John Bolton, Michael Duffey, and Robert Blair – ‘had direct knowledge of President Trump’s decision to cut off aid in order to benefit himself,’ the New York Democrat said at a Monday press conference.
‘Simply put: in our fight to have key documents and witnesses in a Senate impeachment trial, these new revelations are a game changer,’ Schumer told reporters.
Sen. Susan Collins said Monday that she would be open to having witnesses at President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate
This comes as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the body’s top Democrat, continues to push for witnesses pointing out that more evidence has come out since the House vote
President Trump’s impeachment is expected to move to the Senate trial phase come January, but Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on rules, such as whether new witnesses can testify
The New York Times story included new details on top officials pressuring President Trump to release the aid dollars to Ukraine.
The president’s impeachment revolves around the idea that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue investigations – including one aimed at former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 political rival – while holding up $400 million in military aid to the embattled American ally.
The Times reported on a late August meeting in which Bolton, then the national security adviser, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Trump in the Oval Office and pushed him to release the aid.
Esper is quoted as saying that the aid has some ‘really good benefits from it,’ including that Ukraine mainly bought U.S.-made military equipment with the tax dollars.
Trump wasn’t convinced.
‘Ukraine is a corrupt country,’ the president insisted. ‘We are pissing away our money,’ he said, according to The Times.
Schumer brought up this scene when pressing for witness testimony.
‘According to this story, there was even a dramatic, intervention-style meeting about this in the Oval Office, where President Trump’s most senior national security officials pleaded with him to release the military aid to Ukraine,’ the Senate’s top Democrat said. ‘
‘And when you combine these new revelations with the explosive emails from Michael Duffey released last weekend, it makes the strongest case yet for a Senate trial to include the witnesses and documents we have requested,’ Schumer added.
Earlier this month, the Center for Public Integrity released emails belonging to Duffey, the associate director for National Security Programs at the Office of Management and Budget.
One such email was Duffey informing the Pentagon that the $391 million in aid was being frozen.
The message came 91 minutes after President Trump’s now infamous July 25 call with Zelensky, which triggered the whistleblower complaint – and eventually Trump’s impeachment.
Collins was specifically asked about Mulvaney and Bolton testifying when she responded that she would be open to it. She also wondered why some of this work wasn’t done in the House.
‘What I don’t understand is why the House, having issued subpoenas, to Secretary Pompeo for example, did not seek to enforce those subpoenas in court, and instead rush[ed] to get articles of impeachment passed before Christmas, and yet have not transmitted them to us in the Senate,’ Collins said. ‘So that seems an odd way to operate.’