Trump Team Wraps Up Impeachment Defense With Bolton Testimony in Question
The revelation did increase pressure on Republican senators who say they want to know all the facts in the case.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s lawyers concluded their defense Tuesday without completely quashing a drive by Democrats to get additional testimony from former National Security Advisor John Bolton and other witnesses.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his members in a closed meeting that he doesn’t yet have the 51 votes needed to vote swiftly on Trump’s acquittal without seeking more evidence, according to a person familiar with the conversation, a move that may have been designed to put pressure on any wavering Republicans.
Just four Republicans joining with all Democrats could force a call for witnesses, which would extend the trial into next month. Three -- Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins -- have expressed interest in hearing from Bolton without explicitly committing to voting for a subpoena.
GOP leaders have two days to prevent defections, and South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune expressed confidence that the trial still would get wrapped up quickly.
“We’re kind of on schedule,” he said.
As part of the closing argument for Trump’s defense, attorney Jay Sekulow urged the Senate to ignore reports about Bolton’s upcoming book regarding Trump withholding aid for Ukraine in exchange for politically motivated investigations. Sekulow said the leaked details from the manuscript, reported by the New York Times, would be “inadmissible” as evidence.
The revelation did increase pressure on Republican senators who say they want to know all the facts in the case, especially from those who have firsthand knowledge. Collins and Romney have already said they would likely vote to call more witnesses, and Democrats argue that a trial without testimony from Bolton would be a sham.
“I think Bolton probably has something to offer us,” Murkowski said. “We’ll figure out how we’re going to learn more.”
Senate Votes
The Senate likely will be asked to decide that crucial question on Friday. The Senate adjourned after Trump’s team wrapped up and will reconvene on Wednesday for eight hours of senators questions to both sides. They will continue questions on Thursday, leading to a vote on whether to call witnesses on Friday.
A national poll released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University found that three-quarters of registered voters say witnesses should be allowed to testify in the impeachment trial. That follows surveys with similar results by CNN and ABC/Washington Post. All the polls, though, show the public is evenly divided on whether Trump should be removed from office.
A decision to call Bolton or any other top Trump administration official is likely to spur a fight with the administration over executive privilege. Bolton said earlier this month he would be willing to testify in the Senate trial under subpoena.
‘Unsourced Allegation’
Two Republicans, James Lankford and Lindsey Graham, suggested senators review Bolton’s manuscript in a closed setting ahead of the critical vote Friday on whether to call witnesses. The White House is currently reviewing the book for classified information ahead of its publication, scheduled for March.
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it “absurd” to require senators to retreat to a secure setting to read a book intended for a general audience. He said that wouldn’t be a substitute for putting questions to Bolton under oath.
While Bolton’s testimony could be damaging to Trump’s defense -- and possibly his political fortunes in November’s election -- no Republican has suggested it would change the outcome of the trial leading to the president’s acquittal on two articles of impeachment.
‘Up in the Air’
Republican Senator John Cornyn, who has supported McConnell’s plan to quickly end the trial, said the question of witnesses is “up in the air.”
But he and other senior Republicans argued that the former Trump adviser’s testimony won’t change any opinions.
“I don’t see that he has any knowledge of anything that we don’t already know. Which is there were discussions about the aid. There were discussions about investigations,” he said. “And in both cases, the aid flowed and the investigations never occurred.”
Some GOP senators pointed to the presentation of celebrity lawyer and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who was given the Trump defense team’s prime-time slot at the end of their presentation on Monday.
“Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense,” Dershowitz said.
The impeachment charges allege that Trump blocked U.S. military aid and a White House visit for Ukraine’s newly elected president because he wanted Ukraine to initiate an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and the position his son, Hunter, held on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Sekulow said Trump had legitimate reasons for his actions, including asking the president of Ukraine to look into the Bidens.
‘Proper’ Interest
“You’re going to impeach the president of the United States for asking a question?” Sekulow asked. “There was in fact a proper governmental interest in the questions that the president asked.”
House Democrats contend that claims of any wrongdoing involving the former vice president’s son amount to debunked conspiracy theories and that Trump only became interested after Biden announced his presidential campaign.
Graham warned Democrats that there would be 51 Republican votes to call numerous other witnesses if Democrats succeed in bringing Bolton or current administration officials in to testify.
“If you call John Bolton, we’re going to call everybody,” Graham said. That, he said, means Hunter Biden, Joe Biden and the intelligence community whistle-blower who raised alarms about Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Schumer has rejected the idea of a “deal” that would tie calling the Bidens to testify in return for Bolton or acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, but he said Tuesday that the Republicans have the votes to subpoena whoever they want. He warned, however, that Republicans would look “very, very bad” if their witnesses are simply trying to distract the public from the truth.
Schumer said calling Hunter Biden is a distraction and “an intentional misdirection” the Republicans are pulling out because “they have no one to defend the president on merit.”
”What can Hunter Biden tell us about the president’s obstruction of Congress? Nothing, obviously,” Schumer said.
--With assistance from Laura Davison, Erik Wasson and Josh Wingrove.
To contact the reporters on this story: Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net;Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net;Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Anna Edgerton
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