No signs of demand for witnesses in Trump trial

Senators aren’t clamoring for either House managers or former President Trump’s team to request to call witnesses, as the impeachment trial appears poised to wrap in a matter of days.

Days into the proceeding, no senator has explicitly called for witnesses — a move that would drag out the trial for days if not weeks.

“I think the case has been made. I don’t know what witnesses would add,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close ally of President Biden’s, also said he did not believe there was a need for witnesses.

“I think the case that’s been laid out, unlike the impeachment a year ago when relevant events and details and personalities were unknown to us,” Coons said.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that he would leave it up to the House impeachment managers but noted that there has “been a lot of witness statements that’s been taken, put on the record.”

The signs that senators aren’t calling for witnesses comes as they expect the trial could wrap up as soon as Saturday.

Closing arguments are expected to end Friday. After that, the Senate has up to four hours for questions from senators, and then up to two hours to debate whether to call additional witnesses.

Neither the House managers nor Trump’s legal team have closed the door to calling witnesses.

“I don’t know. That hasn’t been decided yet, if there’s a right to call witnesses or anything. They have to debate that later,” David Schoen, a member of Trump’s defense team, told reporters, asked if they would try to call witnesses.

Both House managers and Trump’s team can ask to call witnesses, but they need a majority of the Senate to vote in support of such a request.

Several senators said they will leave the decision up to the defense team, signaling they aren’t going to push for witnesses to be called. During Trump’s impeachment trial last year, Democrats made several unsuccessful attempts to call witnesses. Republicans blocked those requests.

“That’s really the job of the House lawyers,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).

Carper said that he was “open to it,” but when asked if there was someone in particular that he wanted to hear from, he added that he hadn’t “given it a lot of thought.”

Asked about the need for witnesses, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said he “would leave that up to the managers.”

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he expected a formal decision to be made after opening arguments.

“We have given the House managers a free hand and they said to us we’re not sure we want [witnesses], but we want to preserve the right,” Schumer told reporters during a press conference.

If the Senate doesn’t call additional witnesses, the trial could quickly come to a close, with only potential deliberations and a final vote on convicting Trump left to wrap up the proceeding.

“If [Trump’s team] rest tomorrow I think it will finish on Saturday unless there’s witnesses,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

Updated 4:29 p.m.