Democrats delay Trump impeachment trial with 11th-hour call for witnesses

Closing arguments at former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial were expected to get underway Saturday morning — but Day 5 started instead with House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) asking to subpoena records and call a witness sparking fierce debate with Trump defense lawyer Michael van der Venn.

The motion led to an hours long delay and back and forth threats of hundreds of witnesses being called, before the Senate, House managers and lawyers for Trump reached a deal to avoid witness depositions altogether — averting a potentially weeks-long drama sparked by an 11th-hour request by Democrats to depose a Republican congresswoman.

The deal allowed for a statement by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) to be read into the record without the congresswoman or anyone else being deposed as a formal witness.

The compromise allows for the trial potentially to end on Saturday as was initially expected. Trump is expected to be acquitted of inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in a mostly party-line vote.

House impeachment managers are now making their closing arguments. They have up to tgwo hours followed by the same timeframe for Trump lawyers and then a vote.

The Democrats had wanted to call Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler as a witness.

Speaking on the Senate floor Raskin suddenly revealed that his team would seek to question Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), who said Friday that she was present for a call between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and former President Trump during the Capitol riot.

According to the Washington lawmaker, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president in the House, Trump and McCarthy spoke as the rioters had breached the gates of the rotunda.

“When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol,” Herrera Beutler said in her statement.

“McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,'” the GOP congresswoman added.

Democratic prosecutors had already rested their case in the matter before Herrera Beutler’s statement was released.

In response to Raskin’s request, defense lawyer Michael van der Veen said that calling witnesses would open a can of worms, noting, “Nancy Pelosi’s deposition needs to be taken. Vice President Harris’ deposition absolutely needs to be taken. And not by Zoom. None of these depositions should be done by Zoom. We didn’t do this hearing by Zoom. These depositions should be done in person in my office in Philadelphia. That’s where they should be done.”

“I’m gonna slap subpoenas on a good number of people if witnesses are what is required here for them to try to get their case back in order.”

At least two Senate Democrats have called for the chamber to suspend closing arguments in the impeachment trial so that witnesses could be called.

“Suspend trial to depose [Rep. Kevin] McCarthy and [Sen. Tommy] Tuberville under oath and get facts,” said Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in a tweet late Friday evening. “Ask Secret Service to produce for review comms back to White House re VP Pence safety during siege. What did Trump know, and when did he know it?”

Whitehouse and other Dems were responding to news reports which alleged that during the height of the Capitol Hill insurrection, Trump told House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”

At the time time, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville — a Trump diehard — stood by his account that he told the president by phone that Vice President Pence had been evacuated from the Senate chamber before Trump sent a tweet disparaging his veep for lacking “courage.”

The call for witnesses could upend Democrats current plans to complete the trial at around 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Whitehouse posted the demand in a lengthy Twitter thread, where he accused Trump’s attorney’s of making “misrepresentations.” The call was seconded by his Oregon colleague Jeff Merkley in a tweet Saturday morning.