Washington — The Senate will reconvene Thursday afternoon for the final day of written questions to House managers and President Trump’s defense team in his impeachment trial, setting the stage for a crucial vote on witnesses on Friday.
Senators on Wednesday peppered both sides with submitted questions about the president’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals and the legal theories underpinning the two articles of impeachment against him. The president’s attorneys argued the president’s conduct does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as Democrats hammered home their insistence that the Senate call new witnesses, particularly former national security adviser John Bolton.
Bolton reportedly alleges in a manuscript of his book that the president tied hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine’s willingness to announce investigations, an accusation the president and his team deny.
The question of whether to allow consideration of new witnesses and documents will come to a head on Friday. If Democrats fail to convince at least four Republicans to join them in calling for witnesses, the Senate could move quickly to a final vote on acquittal. But if enough Republicans side with Democrats, the trial would stretch into next week and possibly longer, with contentious battles over individual witnesses on the horizon.
The second day of questioning gets underway at 1 p.m.
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