Sunday shows preview: Lawmakers gear up for Senate impeachment trial

Congressional leadership of both parties will be out in full force on this week’s Sunday network talk shows as both the Senate and the White House prepare for the impeachment trial that begins Tuesday.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) will appear on ABC’s “This Week,” while House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) will be on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Both lawmakers are impeachment managers, though Schiff is the lead manager on the prosecutorial team. 

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) will join Schiff on “This Week,” and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will appear on “Fox News Sunday.”

The biggest debate surrounding the Senate impeachment trial is whether more witnesses will be called for testimony. 

Democrats have pushed for Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to testify after documents released by the House this week revealed further information about the White House’s involvement with Ukraine.

Parnas, during an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that aired earlier this week, also implicated several allies close to the president, including former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, in the alleged pressure campaign to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations into Trump’s political rivals. 

He also said the president was fully aware of what he was doing in Ukraine and that Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were in the loop as well.

Parnas said he was a direct component of Giuliani’s “shadow diplomacy” in Ukraine, including the former New York City mayor’s efforts to have Trump recall then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch from her post.

Late last year, Parnas and Igor Fruman, another Giuliani associate, were arrested on campaign finance charges.

Giuliani’s former associate also said former national security adviser John Bolton would be able to shed light on the allegations against Trump if he was allowed to testify.  

GOP lawmakers argued that Parnas’s evidence should have been transmitted to the House earlier, but Parnas has claimed that all of his relevant documents had been seized by the Justice Department and were only recently released back to him.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has condemned the Soviet-born businessman and told reporters that Parnas “looks kind of like a shady character.”

Graham added, “I wouldn’t trust [Parnas] as far as I can throw him.”

The White House has chosen its impeachment trial defense team, which includes high-profile lawyers such as Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr. 

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The full lineup of the shows is below: