Trump impeachment process stuck over question of new testimonies

US President Donald Trump’s impeachment process has moved to the US Senate, which is yet to notify resolution of rules and guidelines to hold the trial amid dispute over the question of allowing new testimonies.

A stalemate continues in the US congress on the next step of the Trump impeachment process with the Republicans, who control the Senate, which will hold the trial to determine if the president should be removed from office, and Democrats, who impeached him in December, not agreeing on allowing new testimonies.

US President Donald Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of the Congress. (AFP Photo)

The two parties are locked in a dispute on the question of whether or not to call for new testimonies, from the president’s past and current aides, including former NSA John Bolton. Republicans want to start the trial and leave the question of witnesses to a later stage, while Democrats want to settle it now, upfront, with an assurance on new witnesses.

“It is important that he immediately publish this resolution, so that, as I have said before, we can see the arena in which we will be participating, appoint managers and transmit the articles to the Senate,” Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers, hours after McConnell declared he has the votes to pass a resolution laying out the rules and guidelines of the trial and could do so as soon as the speaker sent across the two articles of impeachment passed by the House in December.

“We have the votes,” McConnell told reporters earlier Tuesday to pass the resolution on the guidelines, which is modelled on the one adopted by the Senate 20 years ago for the impeachment trial of then president Bill Clinton, which allows starting the trial and determines the issue of new testimonies later.

Democrats, who fear that the Republican leadership wants a short trial without new witnesses, have pointed to a key difference between the two impeachments: Clinton had cooperated with the process and allowed aides to testify, whereas Trump has fought it from the start, prevented officials from testifying and refused to release documents. Some officials still testified, defying the president.

But there are plenty more who the Democrats want to see testify, including Bolton, who had a ringside view to the president’s alleged efforts to coerce Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, by withholding military aid to Kyiv and a White House meeting, which is at the heart of the impeachment case. And he did not approve of it, more crucially. He had likened it to a “drug deal” and had a dim view of those helming it, such as the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Bolton has said he is ready to testify if subpoenaed.