House Democrats pleaded with senators Friday to extend the impeachment trial of President Trump into next week and beyond, saying new press reports about Mr. Trump’s efforts to rope Ukraine into investigating a political enemy must be fully pursued.
Democrats said if the Senate votes to acquit Mr. Trump without hearing any witnesses it would put an asterisk next to the outcome.
“The president’s acquittal will be meaningless because it will be the result of a sham trial,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, Democrats’ leader, just before the Senate session began.
As of Thursday night it appeared Mr. Schumer would lose his battle and witnesses would not be called, after at least 50 senators — all Republicans — had signaled they wouldn’t support witnesses.
It wasn’t clear whether that consensus still held Friday afternoon, after a new report in The New York Times says former national security adviser John Bolton has written that Mr. Trump personally asked him to call Ukraine’s president and demand investigations of Democrats. He writes that top officials such as acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Rudolph W. Giuliani and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone — currently leading the president’s defense in the Senate — were present.
Mr. Bolton writes that he never made the call the president asked, the paper reported.
Mr. Trump, in a statement to the paper, denied given any such instruction.
Rep. Adam Schiff, who is leading House Democrats’ impeachment campaign, kicked off Friday’s closing argument by accusing Mr. Cipollone of concealing his involvement.
“There’s a new fact, which indicates that Mr. Cipollone was among those who were in the loop,” he said.
Mr. Cipollone will have a chance to answer later Friday during the closing argument from the president’s team.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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