Most Americans Want Witnesses at Trump Impeachment Trial as Evidence of Wrongdoing Piles Up
Americans want Donald Trump to have a fair trial in the Senate with all relevant witnesses including John Bolton. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to prevent that, but some moderate Republicans including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine have said that they are open to having Bolton, among others, testify.
Axios: "Two-thirds of Americans surveyed want former national security adviser John Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial, according to a Quinnipiac national poll of 1,562 voters released Monday."
Bolton has said that he will agree to testify if subpoenaed, but Trump stated last week that he will invoke executive privilege to prevent Bolton from sharing his knowledge of the Ukraine affair. That's understandable because a number of witnesses told House investigators that Bolton was opposed to Trump's use of US military aid to coerce Ukraine into manufacturing dirt on the Bidens.
Axios: "Former White House official Fiona Hill recounted an episode during which Bolton told her, “I am not part of whatever drug deal [EU Ambassador Gordon] Sondland and [acting chief of staff Mick] Mulvaney are cooking up,” and asked her to relay that message to White House lawyers."
As additional evidence of Trump's wrongdoing [bribery, obstruction] continues to mount, the pressure on McConnell and Senate Republicans to allow witnesses will continue to increase.
New York Times: "Lev Parnas, the Soviet-born businessman who played a central role in the campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rivals of President Trump, completed his break with the White House on Wednesday, asserting for the first time in public that the president was fully aware of the efforts to dig up damaging information on his behalf."
Washington Post: "Documents and text messages released by House Democrats on Wednesday evening show how Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, used the extensive entree he had to President Trump’s world to help put in motion Giuliani’s shadow Ukraine campaign."...
... "The new materials made public by the House Intelligence Committee follow an initial trove released Tuesday night that showed Parnas directly involved with efforts to get the Ukrainian president to announce investigations related to former vice president Joe Biden."
And, maybe even more troubling, we now have evidence that Rudy Giuliani was behind a plan to spy on U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch after it became clear that she wouldn't support Trump's efforts to force Ukraine to dig up dirt on Hunter and Joe Biden.
ABC: "Ukraine's interior ministry said it is opening a criminal investigation into the possible illegal surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch while she was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine."
"The ministry in a statement said police had opened the investigation in light of text messages released by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee between two associates of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani."
So, Sen. McConnell, do you really want to be remembered by history as the Senate leader who blocked the trial of possibly the most corrupt President in our nation's history? Is that really something your conscience can live with?
By: Don Lam & Curated Content
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