Posted on 01/21/2020 12:40:52 PM PST by Red Badger
KEY POINTS Senate Democrats won two key last minute changes to the rules of Trump’s impeachment trial.
Each side will now have three days to make its opening statements, instead of two.
The Senate will also automatically admit evidence from the House investigation into Trump last fall.
WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats won two key changes to the rules of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial as proceedings kicked off Tuesday afternoon.
The changes will permit each side to stretch out the 24 total hours they’ve been allotted for making arguments over three days, instead of two, as McConnell had initially proposed. The changes will also automatically admit into evidence the entire record of the House impeachment probe into Trump last fall.
The surprise last-minute changes were revealed Tuesday afternoon during a formal reading on the Senate floor of the resolution governing the rules of the trial. A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer later confirmed the changes to CNBC.
“After massive pressure from Senate Democrats and the public, Senator McConnell has made two changes to his organizing resolution for the Senate impeachment trial,” Schumer aide Justin Goodman said in an email.
“1. The House record will now automatically be admitted into evidence (under McConnell’s’ original resolution, the Senate would have to vote to add it in) 2. Each side now has three days to make their opening statements (McConnell’s original resolution said it had to be done over two days),” Goodman wrote.
A spokesman for McConnell did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the change came about. But one clue to McConnell’s thinking may lie in the fact that there are distinct benefits for Trump and the GOP in how Tuesday’s events unfolded.
McConnell is known for his exceptionally shrewd use of Senate rules to help him accomplish political objectives, and his last minute changes to the trial rules seem to have been no exception.
While the decision might initially look like a concession to the Democrats, it served McConnell’s aims, as well. By waiting as long as he did to announce the changes, McConnell ensured that his Democratic counterparts spent the day before the trial focused primarily on objecting to the specifics of those two rules.
“McConnell seems to want a trial with no existing evidence and no new evidence,” Schumer said at a Tuesday morning press conference. “A trial with no evidence is not a trial at all. It is a cover-up.”
Schumer also accused McConnell of proposing the short timeline in order to keep the public from watching the trial on TV, by forcing each day’s proceedings to stretch well past midnight, when most people have gone to bed.
But by essentially keeping Schumer busy fighting for evidence and more time, McConnell ensured that there would be lesser focus on a third, equally contentious issue in the rules: Whether the Senate will hear from live witnesses.
The outcome of a debate over witnesses could have far more serious implications for the president than a debate over whether to limit opening arguments to two days or three.
In a surprise move earlier this month, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton formally announced that he would be willing to testify in a Senate trial if he were subpoenaed to do so. Bolton was at the center of the White House national security apparatus during key moments at issue in the impeachment articles, and should he actually testify under oath, Bolton’s account would likely be damaging to the president.
Trump is charged with abusing his power by withholding foreign aid to Ukraine in order to force the country to launch high-profile investigations into Trump’s political opponents. He is also charged with obstructing Congress by prohibiting top aides from testifying before the House last year. He has denied any wrongdoing.
McConnell has so far said that senators will be asked to vote on the witness question later in the trial, after they’ve heard arguments from each side. But Democrats say that amounts to voting on witnesses after the trial is essentially over.
The final rules also leave open the option of holding a vote to dismiss the charges against Trump outright, via a motion on the Senate floor. While only a simple 51-vote majority would be required to pass that motion, a handful of the 53 Republicans in the chamber have suggested they would not vote to dismiss the charges.
Still, it is highly unlikely that two-thirds of the Senate will vote to convict and remove a Republican president. Trump is only the third president in American history to be impeached, and so far no Senate Republicans have said they will vote to convict him.
Opening arguments in the trial are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, and continue well into next week.
Those aren’t key changes. They are absolutely minor. The second in particular is likely a good thing. Admitting automatically all the evidence introduced in the House means that it doesn’t have to be introduced separately into the Senate via testimony. It also permits GOP Senators to state that they had access to the exact same evidence as the House.
It's what the House handed him.
Impeachment process in the house was a sham... this is a sham OF a sham
The Senate will also automatically admit evidence from the House investigation into Trump last fall.
Including ICIG Atkinson’s testimony (which has not been released)?
IMO Mitch changed the rules to “look fair”.
Of course CNBC found a more “sinister” spin to put on it.
“...should he actually testify under oath, Bolton’s account would likely be damaging to the president.”
And we know this how? Oh, you only said “likely”. How likely? Why?
Could Nancy Pelosi have appointed Republican Representatives to present the case?
Why didn’t she?
I imagine Bolton is quite happy with the droning of General Salami.
She wouldn’t even appoint a flipped one.....
“After massive pressure from Senate Democrats and the public,...
What pressure from the public!?!!
I HATE Schumer and schiff and nadler and pelosi and...many of them!!
Perhaps of most importance it gives the Democrats something to claim as a win.
Give a little, gain a lot
Its beginning to look like a Woody Allen movie script.
Nancy Pelosi is terrified that McConnell will agree to the calling of witnesses. If there are witnesses Hunter Biden and Paul Pelosi will be called to testify regarding the Ukraine corruption. They were key players. Then Nancy can use her new gold pen to sign her resignation letter and the bail bond for her son.
Aaahhhh..... Droning. Verb to kill with a drone
yes
BIG mistake.
Give them an inch....
Yah they are minor. The first one is essentially nothing. There still a set number of hours but now spread out over 3 days and not 2. And it was already a given that the house “evidence” would have passed via vote. This takes away the chance that there would a bi-paritsan vote to “admit” it which the press would crow about for days.
?It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. “
Complete nonsense, not true. Many clueless Freepers believe that Schiff did this, but they are wrong also. These two changers were made by McConnell at a lunch with Republican Senators today. Senator Collins wanted the changes and she said that she had some other Senators behind her demand. McConnell needs 51 votes to pass the Resolution. He will not get any Democrat votes, so he has to persuade all the Republicans to agree to the language.
Its not anything significant, but now we have to listen to three days of propaganda instead of two before we can get down to the business of canning this whole sham. All for the news cycle BS.
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