Trump heads for acquittal as Democrats abandon late bid to call witnesses

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Five Republicans join vote for witnesses in Trump Senate trial – video

Donald Trump was heading for acquittal at his second Senate impeachment trial on Saturday, after Democrats bowed to political pressure and abandoned a dramatic late bid to call witnesses.

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The trial was thrown into disarray when prosecutors announced they would seek fresh testimony about the former president’s role in last month’s deadly insurrection at the US Capitol.

The announcement reportedly caught Senate Democrats by surprise, but they voted in favour of the motion and were joined by five Republicans.

Proceedings then came to an abrupt halt as senators huddled in groups to negotiate. Some warned that if multiple witnesses were called by both sides, the trial could drag on for days or even weeks.

“It is chaos that played out,” Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, told reporters during the limbo. “At this point, nobody knows what’s going to happen … If we go down the road of witnesses, this trial could last all of February, all of March, all of April.”

But then Democratic House impeachment managers and Trump’s defence team struck a deal to get the trial back on track.

The managers agreed not to summon the Republican Washington state congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler to testify about her knowledge of a heated call between Trump and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, on 6 January. Instead they submitted her written statement for the record.

Herrera Beutler, one of 10 in her party who voted in the House to impeach Trump, had recounted in the statement late on Friday that the president said to McCarthy about the violent mob: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”

Jamie Raskin, the Democratic congressman who led the impeachment, said he would like to subpoena Herrera Beutler for her contemporaneous notes. Opposing the move, Trump defence lawyer Michael van der Veen argued: “This entire proceeding is based on rumour, report, innuendo.”

Van der Veen warned: “If they want to have witnesses, I’m going to need at least over 100 depositions, not just one … If you vote for witnesses, do not handcuff me by limiting the number of witnesses that I can have.”

Democrats’ willingness to back down was widely seen as a tactical defeat for the party that controls the chamber. Critics accused them of weakness. Some Republicans were gleeful.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida tweeted: “All this drama for nothing. House managers made fools of themselves. They have agreed to have a news article for the record something they could have gotten without resistance from anyone.”

But a drawn out trial could have hindered efforts by Democratic president Joe Biden to move past the controversies surrounding his predecessor and push ahead with his own legislative agenda on a $1.9tn coronavirus rescue plan. Biden has repeatedly declined to offer his opinion on what the verdict of the trial should be.

Trump previously rejected a call by the impeachment managers to testify and his acquittal remained all but certain. Shortly before reconvening for the trial on Saturday morning, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell wrote in an email to Republican colleagues that he would vote to acquit.

McConnell had repeatedly tantalised the media with suggestions that he was keeping an open mind and could vote either way. Seventeen Republicans would have needed to join all 50 Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump and move towards barring him from running for office again.

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House prosecutors have argued that Trump’s rallying cry to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” for his presidency, just as Congress was convening to certify Biden’s victory, was the culmination of months of election lies and incendiary rhetoric. Five people died including a police officer. The trial has witnessed chilling video evidence of Trump supporters fighting police and roaming the Capitol building.

Trump’s lawyers responded on Friday that his words were not intended to incite the violence and that impeachment was nothing but a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from running in 2024.

Trump, who left office on 20 January, is the first US president to be impeached twice and the first to face trial after leaving office.