Schumer asks McConnell for Mulvaney, Bolton to testify in impeachment trial

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) outlining his preferences for the structure of an impeachment trial in the upper chamber and calling for testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

In the letter, the Senate’s top Democrat wrote that other witnesses should be called as well should they be identified by the Trump administration or members of the House who have been designated as impeachment managers. Other requested witnesses include Robert Blair, Mulvaney’s senior adviser, and Michael Duffey, associate director for national security at the Office of Management and Budget.

“Senate Democrats believe strongly, and I think that Senate Republicans agree, that this trial be one that is fair, that considers all of the relevant facts, and that exercises the Senate’s ‘sole Power of Impeachment’ under the Constitution with dignity and integrity,” Schumer wrote.

Schumer also called for the Senate to subpoena documents from the White House, State Department and OMB regarding the delay of military assistance to Ukraine.

Democrats have argued that the president sought to improperly tie the aid to his efforts to convince Ukraine’s president to open criminal investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

That action, they argue, constituted an effort by the president to solicit foreign assistance in the 2020 election, as Biden remains a top contender for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

“I also propose that the Senate issue subpoenas for a limited set of documents that we believe will shed additional light on the Administration’s decision-making regarding the delay in security assistance funding to Ukraine and its requests for certain investigations to be announced by the government of Ukraine,” Schumer wrote.

“This will be a narrowly drawn request limited to electronic communications, memoranda and related records of the relevant senior officials in the White House, Office of Management and Budget, and Department of State,” he continued.

The House Judiciary Committee this week approved two articles of impeachment against Trump over the Ukraine controversy and attempts to obstruct investigations of his efforts.