McConnell discourages Democratic attempts to change his rules using an old trick.

McConnell discourages Democratic attempts to change his rules using an old trick.

Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Senator Mitch McConnell employed one of the oldest tricks in the Senate book to discourage Democrats from mounting time-consuming challenges to his proposed ground rules for the impeachment trial. As the Senate opened Tuesday, Mr. McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader warned senators that they should be prepared to stay as long as possible to enact a resolution setting the parameters for the trial.

That is a not-so-veiled threat to stay into the wee hours if Democrats offer a long string of proposed changes. Senators are already unhappy with having to sit quietly at their desks with no phones or computers.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, had already said he would propose a series of changes but promised he would not be dilatory.

House managers file a 34-page rebuttal of Trump’s defense.

Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times

The seven House managers submitted one final written brief at noon on Monday, just an hour before the Senate was set to reconvene as a court of impeachment. The 34-page filing included a point-by-point rebuttal of arguments put forward by President Trump’s lawyers in his defense on Monday, and an appeal to senators to convict him based on the House charges.

“President Trump continues to insist that he has done nothing wrong,” the managers wrote. “President Trump’s view that he cannot be held accountable, except in an election he seeks to fix in his favor, underscores the need for the Senate to exercise its solemn constitutional duty to remove President Trump from office.”

The managers asserted that the view put forth by Mr. Trump’s team that abuse of power is not an impeachable office was not only legally and constitutionally “wrong” but “dangerous.” The Constitution, they argued, does not require that an impeachable offense be a crime, and its framers specifically included the impeachment clause to deal with president’s who put their own interests above the country.

“That argument would mean that, even accepting that the House’s recitation of the facts is correct — which it is — the House lacks authority to remove a president who sells out our democracy and national security in exchange for a personal political favor,” they wrote.

The managers likewise rejected the argument that Mr. Trump’s attempts to block testimony and witnesses from the House’s impeachment inquiry was lawful and appropriate. Their inquiry was properly authorized, they said, and Mr. Trump never actually asserted executive privilege, merely instructing witnesses not to cooperate without justification.

Taken together, the filings provide a clear map for what live arguments on the Senate floor will look like when they begin later this week.

McConnell challenges senators with remarks about fairness over partisanship.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, in his opening remarks said the day’s proceeding would serve as a critical test for senators.

“This initial step will offer an early signal to our country: Can the Senate still serve our founding purpose?” he said. “Can we still put fairness, evenhandedness and historical precedent ahead of the partisan passions of the day? Today’s vote will contain some answers.”

Mr. McConnell then encouraged senators to support his proposed rules for the trial that have infuriated Democrats, who have described them as tantamount to a “cover-up.” And he again threw cold water on the idea of hearing from new witnesses like John R. Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser.

“Pursuing those witnesses could indefinitely delay the Senate trial and draw out the body into a protracted and complex legal fight over presidential privilege,” he said.

Senators will not be able to speak during the trial.

Regular viewers of Senate proceedings will likely notice something very odd when debate begins: Senators will not be doing the debating themselves.

Because the rules of the trial require senators to remain silent at virtually all times, the motions made by either side will be debated by the House managers and the White House lawyers instead. That leaves the normally loquacious senators in quite a bind. No matter how strongly they feel about their motions, there will be no fist-pounding or stirring speeches in an attempt to convince their colleagues.

At least, not by them.

House manager says the president’s trial is ‘not a joyful moment for me.’

Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Representative Zoe Lofgren, one of the seven Democratic House impeachment managers, said she was not relishing in her role of prosecuting President Trump.

“It is upsetting that the president has engaged in this behavior,” Ms. Lofgren said Tuesday on CNN. “It’s not a joyful moment for me — far from it.”

Ms. Lofgren and her fellow managers will be arguing Tuesday over the trial rules with Mr. Trump’s defense team.

Ms. Lofgren comes to her job with previous impeachment experience as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment and as a law student helping the Judiciary Committee draft its Watergate charges against President Richard M. Nixon.

McConnell counts enough votes to defeat any Democratic changes to the trial rules.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said in a news conference that he would demand that the Senate subpoena both witnesses and documents for the trial — including any records of President Trump’s call with the leader of Ukraine, and any records relating to the White House decision to withhold military aid from Ukraine.

But his Republican counterpart, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has said he counted 53 votes in favor of his rules, suggesting that any Democratic plan to change them would probably fail.

Mr. Schumer said he wants records of meeting or calls involving John Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, among others, adding that the president may have been party to some of those communications.

“The witnesses I’ve requested have gotten a lot of attention and rightly so,” Mr. Schumer said. “The documents are of equal importance.”

Schumer calls Republican rules for the trial ‘a national disgrace.’

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, criticized the rules the majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, has proposed for President Trump’s impeachment trial.Image by Calla Kessler/The New York Times

Senator Chuck Schumer on Tuesday called the Republicans’ plan for President Trump’s trial part of a cover-up and “a national disgrace,” and said he would move to amend to mirror the resolution used for President Bill Clinton as soon as the trial begins at 1 p.m.

Mr. Schumer, the minority leader, was reacting to rules set out by his Republican counterpart, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, who pledged to run Mr. Trump’s trial in accordance with the organizing resolution used during the Clinton trial, but has instead proposed a much speedier trial that would not include evidence gathered by the House in the trial record.

“McConnell seems to want a trial with no existing evidence and no new evidence,” Mr. Schumer said, adding, “A trial with no evidence is not a trial at all — it’s a cover-up.”

Callers urged to flood the Senate switchboard to demand witnesses and evidence.

Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, on Tuesday urged people to flood the Senate switchboard with calls demanding that senators allow new witnesses and evidence to be considered as part of the impeachment trial of President Trump.

“202-224-3121 is the number and ask for witnesses and documents,” Mr. Schatz wrote on Twitter.

The social media request was part of a Democratic effort to attack the trial rules proposed by Republicans as part of a “cover-up” designed to move the impeachment trial to a rapid acquittal of the president.

Democrats are hoping that the public will pressure Republicans to alter their proposed rules, which would condense arguments to just two days for each sides and postpone votes on witnesses until after arguments and questions from senators.

A new poll from CNN found that 69 percent of Americans believe that the impeachment trial should include new witnesses and evidence that were not part of the House inquiry that led to the president’s impeachment.

Giuliani says he would testify at the trial if called.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer and a key player in the Ukraine pressure campaign at the heart of the impeachment case, said Monday night that he would happily testify in the Senate trial if called as a witness.

“I wouldn’t mind being called as a witness for a lot of reasons, including being able to reveal the unbelievable amount of corruption that went on between the Democratic Party and Ukraine all throughout the Obama administration,” Mr. Giuliani said on “The Ingraham Angle” program on Fox News.

Mr. Giuliani led a rogue group of people inside and outside the government to push Ukraine to investigate Mr. Trump’s rivals, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter. He also orchestrated a smear campaign to oust Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former United States ambassador to Ukraine. There is no evidence that the former vice president did anything improper regarding Ukraine during his time in office.

During the Fox News interview, Mr. Giuliani said he was lied to by Lev Parnas, an associate who worked with him in Ukraine. Mr. Parnas, who is under criminal indictment for campaign finance violations, has provided documents about the Ukraine pressure campaign to House investigators.

“Obviously, I was misled by him,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I still feel sorry for him.”

House managers accuse McConnell of trying to hide Trump’s misconduct.

Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times

The House managers on Tuesday morning issued a statement blasting the resolution from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, setting forth rules for the Senate trial, saying it “deviates sharply from the Clinton precedent — and common sense — in an effort to prevent the full truth of the president’s misconduct from coming to light.”

The statement came just hours ahead of what is expected to be a divisive debate about the resolution, which would accelerate the trial by limiting the time for oral arguments. It also declines to automatically enter the evidence gathered by the House into the official record of the Senate trial.

“A White House-driven and rigged process, with a truncated schedule designed to go late into the night and further conceal the president’s misconduct, is not what the American people expect or deserve,” the managers said in their statement. “There should be a fair trial — fair to the president, yes, but equally important, fair to the American people. Any senator who wants the same, should reject the McConnell resolution.”

Romney tells constituents not to expect him to support calling witnesses before opening arguments.

Credit…T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah and former Republican presidential candidate, issued a statement to his constituents on Tuesday, pledging to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.” All senators took that pledge, but any votes were still expected to be along party lines.

Mr. Romney is one of a handful of Republicans who have said they would be open to a vote on whether to call witnesses, something the Democrats have been demanding. In his statement, Mr. Romney said he would not support efforts to hold a vote on whether to call witnesses until after opening arguments are complete, which, under the majority leader Senator Mitch McConnell’s plan could be next week.

On Monday, Mr. Romney said he supported Mr. McConnell’s proposed rules.

“The allegations outlined in the articles of impeachment passed by the House are extremely serious — did the president abuse his office for personal political gain, and did he obstruct Congress’ investigation by blocking subpoenas?” Mr. Romney said. “These allegations demand that the Senate put political biases aside, and make good faith efforts to listen to arguments from both sides and thoroughly review facts and evidence.”

Schumer promises a tough fight from Democrats.

Credit…Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, denounced his Republican counterpart on Tuesday, hours ahead of what is expected to be a marathon debate over the rules for the Senate trial of President Trump.

Mr. Schumer said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has proposed a trial with “as little evidence as possible” and conducted in secrecy in “the dead of night.”

“The trial doesn’t even allow the evidence from the House to be let in,” Mr. Schumer said during an interview on CNN.

Mr. McConnell on Monday angered Democrats by breaking from his weekslong assertions that Mr. Trump’s trial should be conducted in the same manner as former President Bill Clinton’s 1999 trial. Mr. McConnell’s draft resolution proposes meaningful changes from the way Mr. Clinton’s trial was conducted, including not automatically admitting the Democrat-led House’s findings as evidence. McConnell aides said the majority leader never intended to follow the Clinton model exactly.

Senate Democrats intend to force votes on amendments to Mr. McConnell’s resolution today that will highlight the fact that it does not guarantee witnesses or new evidence.

Mr. McConnell does not want to hear from new witnesses, including testimony from John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser who most likely has firsthand accounts of the White House’s improper pressure on Ukraine.

Of a possible scenario in which senators hear testimony from Mr. Bolton in a closed, classified setting, but not in public, Mr. Schumer said, “Cover up, cover up, cover up.”

House managers call on White House counsel to disclose his knowledge of impeachment-related conduct.

Escalating a war of paperwork over their charges, the House managers insisted on Tuesday that Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel and his lead lawyer in the trial, disclose what he knows about the behavior underlying the impeachment charges.

“Evidence indicates that, at a minimum, you have detailed knowledge of the facts regarding the first article and played an instrumental role in the conduct charged in the second article,” the managers wrote. “The ethical rules generally preclude a lawyer from acting as an advocate at a trial in which he is likely also a necessary witness.”

The managers stopped short of calling for Mr. Cipollone to recuse himself from the proceedings. But they said their investigation had shown Mr. Cipollone had intimate knowledge of contemporaneous complaints within the White House about President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine and was instrumental in his attempts to block testimony and evidence from reaching the House — attempts the House deemed unconstitutional obstruction of Congress.

Trump escapes Washington for Switzerland and brags about the economy.

Credit…Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

On the day that the Senate begins his impeachment trial in earnest, President Trump is 4,000 miles away on a snowy mountain, talking trade and the global economy.

Mr. Trump arrived in Davos, Switzerland, at 2:21 a.m. Tuesday morning to address the World Economic Forum — slipping out of the Washington circus surrounding what he calls the “hoax” taking place in the Capitol.

The president did not mention impeachment in his 30-minute speech to the chief executives, celebrities and heads of state at the Alpine gathering. Instead, in remarks that felt like one of his campaign rallies without the red-meat, he bragged about an economic success in the United States “the likes of which the world has never seen before.”

He implicitly slammed climate change proponents — including teenager Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish activist — calling them the “heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers.” But he did say the United States would join an initiative to plant one trillion trees around the globe.

Asked whether Mr. Trump was planning to watch any of the impeachment trial, Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said: “He has a full day here in Davos, but will be briefed by staff periodically.”

Democrats are livid about the proposed trial rules.

The impeachment trial for President Trump will reconvene Tuesday afternoon with a raucous debate over proposed ground rules for the proceedings unveiled Monday night by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader.

Mr. McConnell’s proposal includes the following provisions: (1) House prosecutors and Mr. Trump’s defense team each get 24 hours over two days to argue their cases; (2) evidence collected by the House could be admitted into the record only by a majority vote; and (3) Republicans have the option to make a motion to dismiss the trial before arguments from either side are heard.

Democrats quickly attacked Mr. McConnell’s proposed rules as little more than what they called a “cover up” that would shorten the trial and allow the president’s allies to refuse to admit evidence collected by the House about Mr. Trump’s actions. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, promised to offer a “series of amendments” to alter them.

If it is adopted, Mr. McConnell’s resolution will also provide 16 hours for senators to ask questions after they hear presentations by the House prosecutors and the White House defense team. That would be followed by four hours of debate on whether to seek additional witnesses or other evidence. If no witnesses are called, the Senate would move quickly to deliberation and a final vote on the articles of impeachment.



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