Schumer Demands Witnesses Be Called at Senate Impeachment Trial - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Senate trial of President Trump must include witnesses and documents that answer new questions that have emerged about the roles top White House aides played in blocking the release of $391 million in military aid for Ukraine, Senator Chuck Schumer said Monday.

The comments by Mr. Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, came in response to an article published Sunday by The New York Times. It detailed how a number of White House advisers — including the acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney — dealt with Mr. Trump’s order to freeze military aid that was approved by Congress for Ukraine as it fights a war against Russia-backed separatists.

“Simply put: In our fight to have key documents and witnesses in a Senate impeachment trial, these new revelations are a game changer,” Mr. Schumer said Monday at a news conference in New York.

Mr. Schumer said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, must allow the Senate to get more information about the roles played by Mr. Mulvaney and a second White House aide, Robert B. Blair, in blocking the aid, as well as insight into the effort by members of Mr. Trump’s national security team in trying to get the hold lifted.

Spokesmen for both Mr. McConnell and Mr. Schumer said Monday that there had been no new negotiations between them over the format of Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial. Most lawmakers are not expected back in Washington until next week, but Mr. McConnell is likely to address impeachment on Friday when he convenes the Senate to open the second session of the 116th Congress.

Mr. McConnell has told colleagues and the White House that he does not want witnesses called, seeing it as an opening for uncertainty during the trial. Mr. Trump, in private discussions, has told advisers that he understands Mr. McConnell’s argument, but at times he has said that he wants witnesses.

Mr. McConnell’s office declined to comment on Monday about Mr. Schumer’s remarks. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But a lawyer for Mr. Mulvaney said in a statement on Monday that the acting chief of staff would consider any request for him to testify.

“Should there be a Senate trial in which Mick’s testimony is requested, we will analyze the request in consultation with the White House,” said the lawyer, Robert N. Driscoll. “Whether the White House determines that valid constitutional concerns prevent his appearance or not, I am confident that neither Mick nor the president did anything remotely unlawful, much less anything warranting the House’s partisan impeachment effort.”

The Times article detailed actions by Mr. Mulvaney and other top White House aides, including John R. Bolton, the national security adviser at the time, and Mr. Blair, an adviser to Mr. Mulvaney. Those three men, as well as other Trump administration officials, have been barred by the White House from testifying before Congress despite subpoenas that have been issued.

The article described unreleased email exchanges involving Mr. Mulvaney and Mr. Blair, showing them aware that the president’s order would open him to criticism. The article also disclosed that Mr. Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper appealed to Mr. Trump in late August to release the aid, but he declined to do so.

And the article showed that the president reiterated his desire to keep the hold in place throughout the summer, as officials at the Office of Management and Budget — which had embraced the role of finding ways to make Mr. Trump’s policy demands a reality — searched for a legal justification to maintain the freeze. Officials at the agency had conversations at various points over the summer with the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s Office about the existence of the hold, The Times found.

By September, lawyers at the Office of Management and Budget had begun drafting an argument that, under his commander-in-chief authority, Mr. Trump had the right to ignore the congressional mandates around the Ukraine aid based on existing circumstances that could affect diplomatic efforts, The Times found.

These events, which were not revealed during House testimony or in the House’s impeachment report, demonstrate why the Senate must have its own witnesses, Mr. Schumer said on Monday.

“This story makes the choice even clearer: Will the Senate hold a fair trial, or will it enable a cover-up?” he said. “President Trump, if you are so confident you did nothing wrong, why won’t you let your men testify?”

Mr. Schumer was one of several key congressional Democrats who pushed on Monday for the Senate to hear from witnesses like Mr. Mulvaney, Mr. Bolton, Mr. Blair and Michael Duffey, an official at the Office of Management and Budget.

Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which helped lead the impeachment investigation, said the new information needed to be part of the trial.

“New disclosures, in the form of additional documents and interviews, add to the overwhelming evidence of the president’s abuse of his office,” he said. “The Senate — and the public — deserve to see the full extent of the misconduct the White House has been concealing.”

Senator Doug Jones, Democrat of Alabama, who faces a competitive re-election campaign next year, also took up the topic on Monday, in an opinion article published in The Washington Post. “For Americans to have confidence in the impeachment process, the Senate must conduct a full, fair and complete trial with all relevant evidence regarding the president’s conduct,” Mr. Jones wrote. “I fear, however, that we are headed toward a trial that is not intended to find the whole truth. For the sake of the country, this must change.”

Eric Lipton reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington.

2019-12-31 00:07:00Z
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