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Schumer Proposes Senate Subpoena 4 White House Officials for Impeachment
Trial

VOA News

   With the U.S. House of Representatives expected to impeach President
   Donald Trump this week, the top Democrat in the Senate is calling for
   the chamber that will conduct the impeachment trial to hear from four
   key Trump administration witnesses.

   Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a letter to Majority Leader
   Mitch McConnell on Sunday that the Senate should subpoena acting White
   House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and top Mulvaney aide Robert Blair,
   as well as former National Security Adviser John Bolton and budget
   official Michael Duffey.

   Schumer noted House committees conducting the impeachment investigation
   asked all four officials to appear for questioning, but none did.

   McConnell has raised the prospect of a short trial with no witnesses
   called, and said he would be coordinating with the White House as he
   plans the trial.

   A McConnell spokesman said he would be meeting with Schumer to work out
   how to conduct the proceedings.

   Schumer also proposed in the letter the amount of time House members
   and White House lawyers would have for opening arguments, how much time
   Senators would have to question them, and the amount of time allotted
   for witness testimony, closing arguments and deliberations before
   Senators deliver their verdict.

   "We believe this proposal...will allow for a trial in which all of the
   facts can be considered fully and fairly, and in which final votes can
   be taken within a reasonable period of time, without any unnecessary
   delay," Schumer wrote.

   The House is expected to vote Wednesday to approve the two articles of
   impeachment the House Judiciary Committee passed last week. The trial
   in the Republican-majority Senate would take place in January with a
   conviction and Trump's removal from office unlikely.

   The House Judiciary Committee, over unified Republican opposition,
   accused Trump of abusing the power of the presidency by soliciting
   Ukraine to investigate one of his chief 2020 Democratic challengers,
   former Vice President Joe Biden, and then obstructing congressional
   review of his actions by refusing to turn over thousands of pages of
   documents to impeachment investigators and blocking key Trump aides
   from testifying.

   The rancor from the imminent impeachment of Trump played out on
   Sunday's news talk shows in the U.S., with no political agreement on
   the merits of the case against him.

   "We will have done our duty in the House," Congressman Jerrold Nadler
   told ABC's "This Week" show, two days after the House Judiciary
   Committee he chairs approved two articles of impeachment against Trump.

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