Senate approves last minute to subpoena witnesses in impeachment against Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – The Senate approved this Saturday to subpoena witnesses during the impeachment against former president Donald Trump for the assault on the Capitol on January 6, an unexpected move that could lengthen and change the course of this procedure.

Of the hundred senators, 55 voted in favor of subpoenaing witnesses, all of them Democrats and joined by five Republicans: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Lindsey Graham , who initially opposed, but changed her vote in the last moment.

The vote of Graham, close to Trump, could seek to benefit the defense of the former president, who has opposed citing witnesses.

Attorney for ex-president furious over calling witnesses

Before vote, the former president’s attorney, Michael van der Veen , responded furiously to the Democrats’ request for call witnesses and assured that, if the Senate approved that proposal, he would need “100 testimonies and not just one” and insisted on that he would question those people at his law firm in the city of Philadelphia.

That somewhat unusual proposal from Van Der Veen was met with mockery and laughter by the senators, which visibly angered the lawyer, who warned: “There is nothing to laugh about here!”

Decision lengthens the process

It was expected that today the Senate would finish with the final arguments of the two sides and the vote of conviction or acquittal of Trump; But, this unexpected decision could significantly lengthen the process.

This Senate movement comes after the CNN chain published new details of a telephone conversation between Trump and Kevin McCarthy , the Republican leader in the Lower House, occurred during the assault on the Capitol on January 6.

According to these new details, when McCarthy contacted the president to ask his followers to suspend the assault, he refused.

“Well, Kevin, I suppose these people are more angry about the elections than you,” Trump would have replied to McCarthy.

In the In the last hours, Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, corroborated the content of the call between Trump and McCarthy and, in a statement, urged officials close to the former president to reveal all the details of what they know.

Beutler was one of the 10 Republican congressmen who voted in the lower house in favor of the impeachment.

It is not yet clear if the Senate decision means that only Beutler would be summoned to testify, as requested today by Democratic legislator Jamie Raskin, who is leading the accusation against Trump; or if, on the contrary, it implies that any witness could be summoned to testify.

At this time, the senators are still speaking in the hemicycle to try to resolve this point .

In principle, the two parties had opted for a speedy trial without witnesses, as the Democrats wanted to focus on the president’s legislative agenda, Joe Biden , and the Republicans wanted to turn the page of the assault as soon as possible.