The House managers prosecuting the case against President Trump blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed trial rules as “rigged,” just hours before impeachment proceedings are slated to resume on the floor.
The blistering statement from the impeachment managers came after McConnell, late Monday, revealed his resolution.
The resolution showed a condensed, two-day calendar for each side to give opening statements, at 12 hours per day. After the four days of opening arguments, senators would be allowed up to 16 hours for written questions to the prosecution and defense, followed by four hours of debate. Only then would there be votes on calling other witnesses—something that, if approved, would likely happen next week. At the end of the deliberations, the Senate would then vote on each impeachment article.
“For weeks, Mitch McConnell has asserted that he planned to follow the ‘Clinton precedent’ for structuring President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial. It is now clear why he hid his proposed resolution all this time and released it the night before the trial is set to begin,” the managers wrote in a statement Tuesday morning. “His resolution deviates sharply from the Clinton precedent—and common sense—in an effort to prevent the full truth of the President’s misconduct from coming to light.”
The Democratic “managers” include House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif; House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.; and Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y; Val Demings, D-Fla.; Jason Crow, D-Colo.; Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; and Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas. – READ MORE