The Senate impeachment trial of President Trump — only the third impeachment trial in US history — kicked off in earnest today. While there were procedural moves in the trial last week, today marked the first serious day of trial.
Here’s what you need to know about how the day played out:
The Senate has adopted the rules for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on a party line vote of 53-47.
The vote comes after nearly 13 hours of debate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed 11 amendments to the rules, all of which were killed by Senate Republicans.
The Senate adjourned for the end of the first day of the trial right after the vote.
The Senate is now voting on whether to adopt Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The vote comes after more than 12 hours of debate and discussion over the rules and 11 amendments proposed by Democrats, all of which were killed by Senate Republicans.
The Senate has killed the 11th, and final, proposed amendment to the Senate impeachment trial rules that was brought by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The final one would have given Chief Justice John Roberts power over subpoenaing witnesses and documents, instead of leaving it to a vote of the Senate.
The final amendment died, as did nearly all of the first 10, along party lines. The vote was 53-47.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced his 11th proposed amendment to the rules of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial early Wednesday and said it would be his last. The previous 10 had all been defeated either on, or mostly on, party lines.
The 11th amendment would allow Chief Justice John Roberts to decide on whether to allow motions on subpoenas for witnesses and documents.
The Senate just voted to kill the 10th amendment proposed to the rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. This amendment dealt with the amount of time allotted for written motions and responses during the trial.
That amendment was – like the previous nine – defeated, but this one wasn’t completely on party lines: It went down 52-48. Maine Sen. Susan Collins was the lone Republican to cross party lines and vote with the Democrats.
Senators were definitely at the end of their rope during the debate over the ninth proposed amendment to the rules of the impeachment trial. The corner of the chamber has become a popular spot on both sides for congregating, pacing and quiet conversations.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, huddled while House impeachment manager Jerry Nadler was talking, and Sen. Bernie Sanders wound up there pacing back and forth.
Several senators are struggling to keep their eyes open, including Gillibrand.
The managers had to find a way to pass the time too. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, grabbed the special badge for the impeachment trial from a House Judiciary Committee aide to inspect it.
Sens. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, sat intently listening to Nadler, and did not react when he accused Republicans of a cover up with their votes today.
Nadler also did not react when President Donald Trump’s legal team attacked him by name. He took notes while they criticized him, staring straight ahead at his aides across the table.
The Senate killed another proposed amendment to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, this one to force votes on witnesses and documents.
The amendment died on party lines, 53-47.
The amendment would have forced a vote of the Senate on any motion to subpoena witnesses and documents. The current proposed rules have a procedural vote that must pass before any actual vote on subpoenas for witnesses and documents.
The Senate voted 53-47 along party lines to kill a proposal from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that would have issued a subpoena for President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton’s testimony.
Bolton has said he would testify if subpoenaed in the trial, and that still may come if a majority of senators vote to issue a subpoena later on in the trial. The amendment discussed Wednesday would have inserted the subpoena into the rules of the trial itself.
Schumer has asked for eight amendments to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules for the impeachment trial and all have been defeated on party lines.
The Senate is now debating a ninth amendment, which requires a vote of the Senate on any motion to subpoena witnesses and documents. The current proposed rules have a procedural vote that must pass before any actual vote on subpoenas for witnesses and documents.
Chief Justice John Roberts admonished the House impeachment managers and President Donald Trump’s legal team after a feisty exchange in the early morning hours.
“I think it is appropriate for me to admonish both the House managers and the President’s counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body,” Roberts said. “One reason it has earned that title is because its members avoid speaking in a manner and using language that is not conducive to civil discourse.”
Roberts had just listened to the impeachment manager and Trump’s legal team rip into each other after House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler made the case for issuing a subpoena for former national security adviser John Bolton’s testimony.
During that argument, Nadler accused Republican senators of “voting for a coverup” by killing amendments for documents and testimony of additional witnesses.
“So far, I’m sad to say, I see a lot of senators voting for a coverup. Voting to deny witnesses and obviously a treacherous vote,” Nadler said. “A vote against an honest consideration of the evidence against the President. A vote against an honest trial. A vote against the United States.”
That led to White House counsel Pat Cipollone to fire back at Nadler, saying, “The only one who should be embarrassed, Mr. Nadler, is you. For the way you addressed this body. This is the United States Senate. You’re not in charge here.”
Roberts said that kind of exchange was not appropriate and the legal teams need to be on their best behavior.
“I think those addressing the Senate should remember where they are,” Roberts said.
Watch moment here:
White House counsel Pat Cipollone chastised House impeachment manager Jerry Nadler for his argument in favor of former national security adviser John Bolton’s testimony, during which Nadler repeatedly accused Senate Republicans of participating in a coverup if they denied Democratic requests for witnesses.
Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, harangued the Senate just after midnight on Wednesday on multiple occasions, saying, “The Senate is on trial in the eyes of the American people” and voting in favor of restricting witnesses was akin to being “complicit in the President’s coverup.”
“Will you vote to allow all of the evidence to be presented here? Or will you betray your pledge to be impartial juror?” Nadler said. “Will you bring Bolton here and permit us to present you with the entire record of the President’s misconduct? Or choose to be complicit in the President’s cover up.”
“So far, I’m sad to say, I see a lot of senators voting for a coverup. Voting to deny witnesses and obviously a treacherous vote. A vote against an honest consideration of the evidence against the President. A vote against an honest trial. A vote against the United States.”
That led Cipollone to say Nadler owed the Senate an apology.
“We have been respectful of the Senate. We have made our arguments to you. And you don’t deserve, and we don’t deserve, what just happened,” Cipollone said. “Mr. Nadler came up here and made false allegations against our team, he made false allegations against all of you. He accused you of a cover up. He’s been making false allegations against the President.”
“The only one who should be embarrassed, Mr. Nadler, is you. For the way you addressed this body. This is the United States Senate. You’re not in charge here.”
Jay Sekulow, another one of Trump’s attorneys, continued the onslaught against Nadler.
“We hopefully are closing the proceedings. Not on a high note,” Sekulow said. “’Only guilty people try to hide evidence’? So I guess when President Obama instructed the attorney general to not give information, he was guilty of a crime.
“That’s the way it works, Mr. Nadler? Is that the way the United States Constitution works? Because that’s not the way it was written. That’s is not the way it is interpreted. And there’s not the way the American people should have to live. I’ll tell you what’s treacherous – coming to the floor of Senate and say, ‘Executive privilege and other non-sense.’ ”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered his eighth amendment to the proposed rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial: Issuing a subpoena for former national security adviser John Bolton.
Bolton is seen as perhaps the most important person who has not yet been heard from in the impeachment investigation into Trump’s dealings in Ukraine. He’s a central figure who had been present for many of the events that are crucial to the investigation, but did not comply with a subpoena to testify in the House investigation.
Bolton, earlier this month, said he would testify if subpoenaed in the Senate impeachment trial.
“He stated his willingness to testify in the trial,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat who is one of the House impeachment managers. “He’s prepared to testify. He says he is relevant evidence not disclosed to the public.”
The Senate killed the seventh proposed amendment to the proposed rules to President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. This amendment had to do with rules on how evidence is handled during the trial. The amendment died on a party line 53-47 vote.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has previously offered six amendments, all of which have died on 53-47 votes.
House impeachment manager Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, explained the seventh proposed amendment by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as an attempt to close a “gaping hole” in the proposed rules for the trial.
Schiff said the proposed rules for the trial currently allow President Donald Trump’s team to “cherry pick documents he has refused to produce to the House, and attempt to admit them into evidence here. That would enable the President to use his obstruction not only as a shield to his misconduct but also as a sword in his defense.”
“The amendment addresses that issue by providing that if any party seeks to admit, for the first time, here information that was previously subject to subpoena, that party must do a simple and fair thing,” Schiff said. “It must provide the opposing party all of the other documents responsive to the subpoena. That is how the law works in America.”
Schiff was speaking at the beginning of the latest block of debate over a proposed amendment. The six previous amendments proposed by Schumer have all been killed on party lines, 53-47.
Schiff said the amendment would also require proper handling of confidential and classified information.
Trump’s legal team objected to the amendment, with Patrick Philbin, deputy counsel to the President, arguing that the subpoenas issued by the House during the impeachment inquiry were not duly authorized. Philbin argued that because the House began its investigation without holding a full vote authorizing the inquiry, the subpoenas that the administration ignored were not authorized correctly.
“The first 23 subpoenas, at a minimum, that the House committees issued were all unauthorized and that is why the Trump administration did not respond to them and did not comply with them,” he said.
Watch here:
The Senate killed the sixth proposed amendment to the impeachment trial rules, once again on a party line vote of 53-47.
The Senate is now considering a seventh amendment from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. This one would require that each side must provide the other any evidence that is gathered from a duly authorized subpoena. The amendment would apply to any evidence that is already not a part of the collection of evidence gathered by House investigators during the impeachment inquiry.
The aim is to avoid the selective admission of evidence and for the proper handling of classified and confidential material, according to Schumer’s office.
Former Florida attorney general and White House adviser Pam Bondi appeared for the first time on President Donald Trump’s behalf at the Senate trial late Tuesday evening, during the debate over an amendment to subpoena White House budget officials Michael Duffey and Robert Blair.
She corrected House managers, saying Duffey didn’t come to the Office of Management and Budget from a state job, but instead that he had been a deputy chief of staff at the Department of Defense. “Big difference there,” she said.
She also claimed that the House committees would not allow agency counsel to appear with Duffey or Blair, which Schiff countered during remarks immediately after.
She invoked dramatic language, saying the hypocrisy of House Democrats “is astounding,” that they “threw due process and fundamental fairness out the window,” lamenting “secret bunker hearings” during the House impeachment inquiry and called House proceedings a “one-sided circus.”
The Senate is now voting on whether to issue subpoenas to Robert Blair – a senior aide to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney – and Michael Duffey – the Office of Management and Budget associate director for national security programs. The vote is the sixth amendment proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, all of which have been defeated on party line votes.
The Senate voted on party lines to kill Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s fifth amendment to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The amendment would have subpoenaed the Defense Department for documents related to the Ukraine scandal and was defeated on a party line vote of 53-47.
The Senate is now debating a sixth Schumer amendment, which would issue subpoenas to Robert Blair – a senior aide to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney – and Michael Duffey – the Office of Management and Budget associate director for national security programs.
The Senate is now voting on Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s fifth amendment to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules for the trial. This one would issue a subpoena for Ukraine documents from the Department of Defense. All the other amendments have been defeated on party lines, 53-47.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s fifth proposed amendment is to subpoena a series of documents from the Department of Defense related to the Ukraine scandal.
The proposal signaled that the Senate appears to be moving forward without a resolution on how long tonight’s deliberations will go. More talks are possible, but debate on the amendments will continue.
There will be two hours of debate on the latest amendment – one house for the House impeachment managers and one house for Trump’s legal team.
