Bolton impeachment testimony could be a test for Chief Justice Roberts by jonward11
The biggest debate this week has been whether Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser until last September, would be called to testify after details of his book alleging direct knowledge of Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine came to light Sunday night.
If all three of those senators were to vote in favor of calling Bolton, it would likely produce a 50-50 tie. That could put Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the impeachment trial, in a position to decide the matter. Story continuesWednesday’s trial proceedings offered senators their first opportunity to ask questions, which they submitted in writing to the chief justice, who read them aloud.
Patrick Philbin, a Trump attorney, said he could not provide any evidence of such a statement by the president. That point has been key to Schiff and the impeachment managers’ argument that Trump’s interest in seeking Ukraine investigations into Biden constituted an abuse of power. Philbin picked up Portman’s baton and ran with it, arguing that “whatever is accepted in this case becomes the new normal.” Earlier, Philbin had said that if “hurried, half-baked” impeachment inquiries in the House became the norm, it would become a more regular occurrence and the Senate would be “paralyzed” increasingly often.
Trump’s legal team and Republican senators spent considerable time Wednesday trying to distract from the accusations against Trump. They accused Schiff of colluding with the whistleblower who started the inquiry into Trump’s pressure on Ukraine back in August. They accused former President Obama of committing his own abuses because he was in charge of the government when the FBI abused its wiretapping warrant process in surveilling a member of Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.
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