Schiff offers to limit time spent on impeachment witnesses
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 01/30/20 05:14 PM EST 800
Volume 0%
00:01
01:07
More Videos
00:33
Final impeachment vote postponed to Wednesday amid internal GOP spat
00:47
Chris Wallace: If I'm Trump, 'I would not be especially pleased' with White House defense
00:33
Warren puts Justice Roberts in awkward spot with Supreme Court legitimacy question
00:50
Roberts refuses to read question from Paul on whistleblower
00:44
Trump legal team concludes opening arguments in impeachment trial
00:42
Megyn Kelly, Bill Maher agree on 'Real Time': 'The media's so messed up right now'
00:34
DOJ releases new tranche of Mueller witness documents
00:38
Alexander to vote no on witnesses, bringing trial close to end
Close
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Thursday offered to limit closed-door depositions for potential witnesses in President Trump's Senate impeachment trial to one week.
"I will make an offer to opposing counsel, who says this will stretch on indefinitely if you decide to have a single witness. Let's cabin the depositions to one week," Schiff said from the Senate floor. "I think we can. I think we should. I think we must."
Trump's legal team has warned repeatedly during the two-day question-and-answer session that allowing new witnesses would be a legally fraught, time-consuming effort that would not change the outcome of the trial where 67 votes are needed to convict Trump.
Pat Philbin, a member of Trump's legal team, warned senators on Wednesday that if former national security adviser John Bolton was called Trump would also try to call a "long list" of witnesses.
"It's not a question of a lot of people talking right now about John Bolton," he said. "The president would have the opportunity to call his witness, just as a matter of fundamental fairness."
The Senate will vote on Friday on whether or not to allow new witnesses and documents as part of the trial. Democrats will need to win over four Republican senators in order to call witnesses.
Under the rules for the trial passed last week, any witnesses who senators agree to subpoena would first be deposed behind closed doors. The Senate would then decide if the individual needed to testify. But the rules do not put a cap on how long that process can take.
LOAD COMMENTS (800)
Posts
