Democrats' bid to call witnesses set to fail

WASHINGTON • Democrats appeared to have fallen short yesterday in their bid to secure the votes needed to call witnesses in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, clearing the way for his likely acquittal as early as this weekend.

Democrats had urged a handful of Republicans to support their effort to call witnesses, but their hopes appeared dashed when Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, who had been undecided, declared further evidence in the case was unnecessary.

"There is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution's high bar for an impeachable offence," said Mr Alexander in a statement after the evening session had concluded.

Barring an unforeseen change of heart by another Republican senator, it appeared Mr Alexander's decision would bring an end to Mr Trump's two-week trial and provide him with the swift decision he had sought.

Earlier, Republican Senator Susan Collins broke with her party and announced her support for witnesses. But Democrats needed at least three of her colleagues to defect and give them the 51 votes needed to call witnesses and prolong the trial.

Two-thirds of the Senate are required to remove Mr Trump from office. He is unlikely to be convicted.

Bracing themselves for a likely defeat of their efforts to force witnesses to be heard at the trial, Democrats forecast what is likely to be their message after the verdict is reached, asserting that Mr Trump's acquittal would be illegitimate because the trial was flawed.

"He will not be acquitted," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters. "You cannot be acquitted if you don't have a trial. You don't have a trial if you don't have witnesses and documentation."

Democrats had hoped to hear from former national security adviser John Bolton after a report, which he has not denied, that he planned to say in an upcoming book that Mr Trump told him he wanted to freeze US$391 million (S$534 million) in US military aid for Ukraine until it investigated Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had worked for a Ukrainian energy firm.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives impeached Mr Trump in December, formally accusing him of abusing his power for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. The House also charged Mr Trump with obstruction of Congress.

Mr Trump's acquittal would allow him to claim vindication just as the Democratic Party holds its first nominating contest for the Nov 3 election in Iowa on Monday.

Mr Trump held a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday night and slammed the trial, calling it an effort by Democrats to overturn his 2016 election victory. "They want to nullify your ballots, poison our democracy and overthrow the entire system of government," he said.

The two sides also sparred over the unnamed government official whose whistle-blower complaint about Mr Trump's dealings with Ukraine spurred the drive to remove him from office.

Mr Trump and some other Republicans have pressed for months to unmask the intelligence official who filed the report and have tried to paint that person as a partisan figure working with Democrats to destroy Mr Trump's presidency.

According to the person's lawyers, the government has provided security to the whistle-blower in response to security threats.

On Thursday, the issue boiled to the surface again when US Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial, refused to read a question from Republican Senator Rand Paul that included the name of a person that the right-wing media has accused of being the whistle-blower.

Mr Paul is one of several Republicans, including Mr Trump, who have posted social media links to some of those news articles.

Late yesterday, each side was expected to present closing arguments before the Senate moves to the question of whether to call witnesses. If the vote on whether to allow witnesses is 50-50, Chief Justice Roberts could step in to break the tie.

But there is so little precedent for impeachment trials - this is only the third of a president in US history - that Senate aides said there was no way to know exactly what would occur.

If Chief Justice Roberts declines to break a tie, the vote deadlock would mean a defeat for Democrats.

REUTERS, NYTIMES