Trump impeachment: Dems seek White House big names John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney as witnesses for Trump trial
Democrats’ sweeping impeachment report accuses Donald Trump in of betraying the nation and abusing his office.
Democrats have laid out their impeachment case against Donald Trump in a sweeping report accusing him of betraying the nation and abusing his office.
The 650 page report, published online, contains no new claims against Mr Trump but sets out the two articles of impeachmen already approved by the House Judiciary committee.
The president “betrayed the Nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections,” says the report. He withheld military aid from the ally as leverage, the report says, and “Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”
The house is expected to impeach Mr Trump with a vote along party lines on Thursday (AEDT) with Democrats calling for a Senate trial to begin in the week beginning 6th January.
Democrats have called for Mr Trump’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton to testify in a Senate impeachment trial next month.
The move is an opening salvo by Democrats to pressure Republicans over the looming trial as both sides of politics plan strategies ahead of the expected impeachment.
The impeachment will follow one of Mr Trump’s most successful weeks of his presidency with a bipartisan deal to pass his revised North American free trade pact and also his conclusion of a Phase One trade agreement with China.
Mr Trump is also reportedly considering announcing the withdrawal of 4000 troops from Afghanistan which would help fulfil his promise to reduce US military commitment to the country’s longest war.
There are currently around 13000 troops in Afghanistan and Mr Trump has reluctantly kept them there on the advice of his generals despite his desire to end US involvement in the 18 year war.
With Mr Trump’s impeachment by the house considered inevitable, attention is focusing how the Senate trial should be conducted.
Democrat Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote to the Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell saying that a Senate impeachment trial ‘must be one that not only hears all of the evidence and adjudicates the case fairly; it must also pass the fairness test with the American people.’
Mr Schumer said the Democrats wanted to call key White House witnesses who refused calls to appear before the house impeachment inquiry. These included Mr Mulvaney and Mr Bolton as well as Robert Blair, a senior adviser to Mr Mulvaney and Michael Duffey, a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget.
The Republican-controlled Senate would almost certainly refuse to call Mr Mulvaney and Mr Bolton without the approval of the White House.
Mr Trump has said previously he would like to see Republicans call their own witnesses including his Democrat opponent Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as the anonymous intelligence whistleblower who compliant trigger the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry.
But Mr McConnell has advised the president that the better strategy may be to call no witnesses given that the Republicans already have the numbers to easily acquit the president in the Senate trial.
Mr McConnell privately warned Mr Trump that a battle over witnesses in a Senate trial would be “mutually assured destruction.”
Republicans have taken heart from a series of polls which show that support for impeachment has not increased in recent months despite high profile public hearings in Democrat-controlled committees which received heavy media coverage.
Mr Trump claimed that Democrats were facing a sharp backlash from voters over the impeachment proceedings.
“Congressional Do Nothing Democrats are being absolutely decimated in their districts on the subject of the Impeachment Hoax,’ Mr Trump tweeted. “People that voted for them are literally screaming in their faces.’
One Democrat Congressman, Jeff Van Drew, who won in a Trump-supporting district of New Jersey and was an opponent of impeachment said he would swap parties and become a Republican after meeting with Mr Trump.
“Wow, that would be big. Always heard Jeff is very smart,’ Mr Trump tweeted.
Democrats have criticised Mr McConnell for his claim that he would run the Senate trial in ‘total co-ordination’ with the Trump White House.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said the comment was like “the foreman of the jury saying he’s going to work hand in glove with the defence lawyer.”
The house vote on impeachment this week is likely to pass easily in the Democrat-controlled chamber with only a handful of Democrats voting against it. Republicans are unified and not a single member of the party in the house is expected to vote in favour of impeachment.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
More Coverage
Albanese likened to Latham amid split with US on Israel
John Howard has drawn parallels between Anthony Albanese and Mark Latham over Labor’s handling of national security, warning that the government ‘doesn’t really have a grasp on the nuances of foreign policy’.
Tempers expected to flare against the backdrop of war
The East Asia Summit this week is likely to be a heated one as both the Ukraine war and the Middle East conflict are expected to spark divisions in an already fractured membership.