Lisa Murkowski to vote no on new witnesses: 'There will be no fair trial in the Senate'

Lisa Murkowski to vote no on new witnesses: 'There will be no fair trial in the Senate'President Trump's impeachment trial is set to wrap up without new witnesses being called.Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced Friday she will vote against calling new witnesses, in a statement saying she "carefully considered the need for additional witnesses and documents" but ultimately decided against it."Given the partisan nature of this impeachment from the very beginning and throughout, I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate," she wrote. "I don't believe the continuation of this process will change anything. It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed."Murkowski, who criticized the House of Representatives' "rushed and flawed" articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, also appeared to criticize Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), writing that "some of my colleagues intend to further politicize this process, and drag the Supreme Court into the fray, while attacking the chief justice." Warren asked a question Thursday suggesting there had been a "loss of legitimacy of the chief justice."As The Hill points out, Murkowski gives Republicans their 51st vote against calling new witnesses. Had Murkowski been a yes, this would have created a 50-50 tie, which NBC News writes "would have at least opened the door to the unlikely possibility that Chief Justice John Roberts could cast a tie-breaking vote." Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) previously announced they would vote in favor of new witnesses, but no other Republicans have, with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Thursday saying he'll vote no.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats


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Impeachment trial/Republican cover-up reaches key decision point: Live coverage #1

After a day of procedural debate and voting, six days of opening arguments, and two days of question and answer, the impeachment trial of Donald Trump could conclude Friday with debate followed by Republicans voting to end the trial and cover up Trump’s abuses of power. But Democrats will be keeping up the fight for a fair trial.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:17:07 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

As they get underway this afternoon, this heartrending post comes from Jerry Nadler.

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Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 7:12:16 PM +00:00 · Barbara Morrill

Ongoing coverage can be found here.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:19:25 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Lisa Murkowski is reported to have announced that she is also a “no” on witnesses.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:22:47 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Adam Schiff opens the day, and will argue the House’s position first, while leaving some time to respond to the statement from Trump’s legal team.

Schiff moves directly to the new information from Bolton’s book, and pauses for effect before naming Pat Cipollone. Schiff calls out Cipollone for his claims that the House managers were suppressing facts when he was suppressing the fact that he was involved.

Schiff: “The facts will come out. They will come out.”

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:23:51 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

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Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:25:30 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff: “Let’s find out who is telling the truth. Let’s put John Bolton under oath. As Mr. Cipollone said, let’s make sure that all the facts come out.” 

Schiff hands off to Val Demings. 

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:27:48 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Val Demings restates that the “evidence in the House record is sufficient to convict [Trump] on both counts, more than sufficient. But that’s not how trials work.”

Renews the call for witnesses, as in other cases. And reminds all the people in the room who have been complaining about precedent and tradition that there has never been an impeachment — not of a president, not of a judge — conducted without witnesses.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:29:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Demings lets emotion slip into her voice as she warns that allowing Trump to remain in office is giving him permission to undermine America’s security and election.

Demings: “Is this a fair trial? Is this a fair trial? Is this a fair trial without witnesses and documents? The answer is unequivocally no!”

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:32:08 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

If the statements from Alexander and Murkowski were not already enough of an indictment of the process in the Senate, Marco Rubio’s is genuinely worse.

Rubio admits that the House made its case and Trump is guilty. He admits that Trump’s actions are impeachable. And he still isn’t going to vote for even bringing in witnesses.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:34:28 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Demings: “Will you let the American people hear, simply hear, the evidence?” Reminds the Senate that when the House managers asked for Bolton’s testimony last week, they did not know what they would say. “Now we know why.”

Not mentioned in Deming’s statement — Cipollone was sitting there arguing against Bolton’s testimony when he definitely knew what Bolton would say.

Demings: “The American people clearly know a fair trial when they see one. Large majorities of the American people want to see witnesses in this trial.”

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:36:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Demings reminds the Senate of the deal that Schiff proposed over the last two days, offering to bind the House team to an agreement to limit witnesses and the time of depositions. Her plea here is one of the best moments of this process. She’s pouring her heart into it.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:38:59 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Demings: “The Senate does not just vote on impeachments. It does not just debate them. The Constitution demands that the Senate try impeachments. And a trial requires witnesses.”

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:40:58 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Demings hands over to Rep. Sylvia Garcia.

Garcia opens, as have others, by thanking Senators for listening. Though the evidence that Republicans have listened seems to be scant.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:43:01 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia points out that, as a lawyer or a judge, she’s never run into a situation in which the defendant is claiming there is no evidence, while acting to suppress all the evidence. She speaks directly to the subpoenas for documents, which are not protected by executive privilege, but have also been subject to a blanket cover-up.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:45:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Ha. Garcia gets in a mention of “those in the room where it happened” a double-play on Hamilton and Bolton’s book. She plays a clip of Cipollone demanding “all of the facts.”

Cipollone: “Who doesn’t want to talk about the facts? Who doesn’t want to talk about the facts? Impeachment shouldn’t be a shell game. They should give you all the facts.”

Garcia digs Cipollone for misquoting witnesses and leaving out parts of statements in an attempt to generate exonnerating evidence. 

Garcia: “Let’s be very clear. We are not the ones hiding the facts … That’s why we are the ones standing up here saying don’t allow [Trump] to silence the witnesses and hide this evidence.”

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:47:33 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia has clearly read the statements from Rubio and Alexander, as she quotes some of their reasoning while calling for witnesses. This is also Garcia’s best moment of the whole trial. 

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:49:06 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

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Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:51:23 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Both Garcia and Demings have hammered the same points. Nixon and Clinton didn’t just allow their closest advisers to testify, they instructed them to do so. Trump is ordering his advisers not to appear … which definitely can be taken as an indication of what those advisers would say.

Garcia: “There’s not much that the American people agree on these days, but they do agree [that this trial should have witnesses].”

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:54:35 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia hands over to Jason Crow.

Crow reminds the Senate that the House managers asked, not for dozens of witnesses, or unlimited witnesses, but four witnesses. And plays another Cipollone clip with the man who was in the room saying “Not a single witness” testified that there was a connection between military assistance and investigations.

Crow: “Denials in 280 characters is not the same as testimony under oath.” 

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:55:01 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

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Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 6:56:49 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Crow brings up the statement that “everyone was in the loop.” So far, the House managers seem to be mostly tiptoeing around the real implications of Cipollone’s involvement. I suspect that in part that’s because this information just landed on the a half-hour before the hearing began.

I also suspect Schiff will not be silent when he wraps this up.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 7:00:48 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Crow makes a nice point that Bolton was mentioned as someone who was trusted by Ukrainian officials. Bolton’s actual role here is something that Americans still don’t understand. It increasingly seems that Bolton was put in the center between a defense of national security and the plot that Trump and Giuliani were directing. There really does seem to be a lot more to come out to describe the whole shape of what happened.

Friday, Jan 31, 2020 · 7:02:43 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Crow spends some time bringing things back to the role of Giuliani. Whose name should have been heard more often in this week. 

It would be interesting to go back over the week to see if Trump’s team has ever said anything about Giuliani not in response to a direct question.

Murkowski embraces the cover-up. In her own words, ‘There will be no fair trial in the Senate’

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has made the decision we all knew was coming: She’ll vote no on having witnesses in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Murkowski’s reasoning for her vote is extra special. The House, she said, “chose to send articles of impeachment that are rushed and flawed. I carefully considered the need for additional witnesses and documents, to cure the shortcomings of its process, but ultimately decided that I will vote against considering motions to subpoena.” Blah blah blah, I’m a Republican posturing about being moderate when the fix was always in.

Here's where it gets ridiculous, though. “I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate. I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything,” Murkowski said. “It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed.”

There will be no fair trial … and Lisa Murkowski is here to ensure it. As an institution, the Congress has failed … and Lisa Murkowski is not going to think too deeply about her own role in that.

New Bolton Book Allegations Drop Hours ahead of Vote on Witnesses

New Bolton Book Allegations Drop Hours ahead of Vote on WitnessesNew reports of the contents of former White House adviser John Bolton's book have surfaced hours before the Senate is scheduled to vote on whether to call witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Trump.According to the New York Times, Bolton writes in his forthcoming book that Trump directed him to assist in the pressure campaign to coerce Ukrainian officials to conduct investigations against Joe and Hunter Biden during a May meeting at which the president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and White House counsel Pat Cipillone were present.During the meeting, Trump directed Bolton to set up a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Giuliani, who was then planning a trip to Ukraine to discuss the opening of the Biden investigation with government officials. Giuliani on Friday denied he was present at such a meeting, while Trump said Bolton's alleged account was wrong.The Times' Sunday report on Bolton's book, The Room Where it Happened, disrupted Republicans' blanket opposition to calling witnesses in the impeachment trial. After unanimously resisting Democrats' calls for Bolton to testify, moderate Republicans began to waver on Monday.Democrats need four Republican senators to vote in favor of calling witnesses in order for the motion to pass. Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine have announced their support, however moderate Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has still not released her position. Senator Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), considered a swing vote, came out Thursday against calling witnesses.Democrats may argue that because revelations from Bolton's book have surfaced once again, a vote to allow witnesses at the trial-presumably including Bolton-would be necessary.The revelation that Trump's pressure campaign had begun as early as May and involved Bolton directly came moments after Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) warned of the possibility the vote on President Trump's impeachment may be pushed back to next week."My guess is it probably is going to carry us over to the first part of next week," Cornyn told CNN. White House officials also told the network it was possible the trial would drag out into next week."I never instructed John Bolton to set up a meeting for Rudy Giuliani, one of the greatest corruption fighters in America…to meet with President Zelensky. That meeting never happened," Trump told the Times.


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