Rep. Adam Schiff on Thursday delivered a last-minute pitch to have witnesses in President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
Schiff said that he wants one week devoted to closed-door depositions from witnesses in the trial as senators prepare to vote on the matter Friday.
“I will make an offer to opposing counsel, who says this will stretch on indefinitely if you decide to have a single witness,” Schiff, the lead House impeachment manager, told senators.
“Let’s cabin the depositions to one week. I think we can. I think we should. I think we must,” the California Democrat added.
Trump’s legal team and GOP senators have argued that allowing more witnesses would mean that the impeachment trial would drag on for weeks or longer.
They have asserted during the two-day question-and-answer phase that allowing new witnesses would not change the outcome of the trial, in which 67 votes would be needed to convict the president of the two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
White House lawyer Patrick Philbin said a day earlier that if former national security adviser John Bolton were called Trump would also try to call a “long list” of witnesses, including Joe and Hunter Biden.
Democrats say more witness testimony is crucial because of developments in the case that only became known after their Dec. 18 vote to impeach.
Those include statements from Lev Parnas that call into question Trump’s version of his dealings with Ukraine, and Bolton’s reported contention that the president had linked military aid to Ukraine to a probe of the Bidens.
Democrats will need to win over four Republican senators out of the 53 in order to call witnesses in Friday’s vote, which was expected to be close.
Trump and Senate Republicans oppose calling any more witnesses and appeared eager Thursday to move to vote against calling new witnesses and for acquitting Trump.
Any witnesses who senators agree to subpoena would first be deposed behind closed doors, with the Senate then deciding if they needed to be heard from publicly.