With Trump Impeachment Trial in Limbo, Schumer Demands Emails and Documents

Democrats argue that Mr. McConnell, who has said he is “taking my cues” from the White House, is effectively letting Mr. Trump plan his own trial and violating the oath that all senators take to be impartial jurors during an impeachment trial. In his letter, Mr. Schumer took a shot at Mr. McConnell.

“To oppose the admission of this evidence would be to turn a willfully blind eye to the facts, and would clearly be at odds with the obligation of Senators to ‘do impartial justice’ according to the oath we will all take in the impeachment trial,” he wrote.

The letter builds on one Mr. Schumer sent to Mr. McConnell on Dec. 15, in which he also asked for the Senate to subpoena an unspecified list of documents, along with the four witnesses. But that letter did not specify which records Mr. Schumer wanted.

In the new letter, he was specific. His request for the White House includes “email communications, messages, memoranda and other records” related to the July 25 call, as well as White House records related to the whistle-blower complaint that sparked the House impeachment inquiry.

From the State Department, he asked for “detailed notes, emails, text and WhatsApp messages, memorandums to file, and diplomatic cables pertinent to the investigation that State Department witnesses told the House are being withheld.” The Office of Management and Budget “is also in possession of highly relevant documents and communications related to this case.”

Mr. Schumer’s letter comes on the heels of newly released emails that shed new light on Mr. Trump’s effort to solicit Ukraine to help him win re-election in 2020. The emails, released late Friday by the Trump administration to the Center for Public Integrity, show that Mr. Duffey, the budget agency official, asked officials to keep quiet over the suspension of military aid to Ukraine.

That request, the emails also show, came just 90 minutes after a July 25 telephone call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. During the call, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Zelensky to “do us a favor, though,” and investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter.

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