Message to Republican senators from their leaders: say no to impeachment witnesses
Senate Republican leaders have a message for any of their members who might want to call witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial: Don’t do it.
As a vote draws near on whether to subpoena new testimony, Senate Republican leaders have started actively telling their membership that it would be a strategic error — and bad for the institution — if senators vote to subpoena new testimony late next week.
While a White House official said this issue has been the subject of “robust discussion for weeks,” three sources with knowledge of internal conversations confirmed to McClatchy that leaders have ramped up their efforts to magnify the warning.
One source explained that leadership is not only messaging to members but also providing “relevant information about the legal implications.”
This strategy marks a new phase of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to keep his members together in the final phase of the trial and give Trump a speedy acquittal.
The question of what happens if the Senate votes to see new material from the White House has consumed lawmakers this week.
Michael Mukasey, a former attorney general under President George W. Bush, spoke on Wednesday behind closed doors to Senate Republicans about how the impeachment trial could plunge into deep uncertainty if senators vote to compel the release of new communications.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of Trump’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill, has been carrying the message to his colleagues. “I’ve been saying it to everybody I can,” he told reporters Friday.
A White House official also confirmed that Trump’s legal team would, in its arguments on the Senate floor in the days ahead, underscore the political and logistical dangers in voting to subpoena new testimony.
“We will be talking about this as part of the president’s vigorous defense,” the official said.
Democrats need only four Republicans to vote with them to subpoena witnesses and documents. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah have said they plan to vote to hear more information, while Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has signaled an openness to voting with them. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee has not yet committed.
Republican leaders are warning that the White House is not going to turn over certain communications without asserting executive privilege, which would likely result in prolonged legal battles that force the Supreme Court to get involved. This would cause indefinite delays to the end of the trial in an election year when Republicans are eager to move on.
There were signs this week these arguments might be sticking, with Murkowski saying to reporters on Thursday she was wary of spurring prolonged legal fights.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff — a California Democrat who has been leading his party’s arguments in the Senate impeachment trial for the president’s removal — told reporters Friday morning these concerns were “nonsense.”
“This is not a trial over a speeding ticket or shopping ticket,” he said. “This is an impeachment trial involving the president of the United States.”
