McConnell Blocks Effort to Subpoena Bolton and Mulvaney Ahead of Impeachment Trial

Melina Mara/Washington Post/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday rejected Democrats’ request to subpoena several key witnesses as part an eventual impeachment trial, calling it a “strange request at this juncture” in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday.

McConnell was responding to a letter sent by his Democratic counterpart, Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), on Sunday that demanded the Senate seek testimony from four White House officials who did not participate in the House impeachment inquiry, including Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton, and proposed a format for the impeachment trial that closely follows the rules that governed Bill Clinton’s Senate trial in 1999. “In the trial of President Clinton, the House Managers were permitted to call witnesses, and it is clear that the Senate should hear testimony of witnesses in this trial as well,” Schumer wrote. At President Trump’s direction, Mulvaney refused to comply with a House subpoena. Bolton said he would only testify if a judge ordered him to do so.

That proposal made exactly zero headway with McConnell, who has said previously that he favors a speedier impeachment trial, as opposed to Clinton’s five-week trial. Instead of approving witnesses before the trial formally kicks off, McConnell said it would “presumably” fall to House prosecutors to make that request once a trial is underway—though Republicans, who hold a majority in the Senate, could vote to block any such efforts.

Even after leaving open the possibility that some witnesses could be called later on, McConnell took a few more digs at the House’s case for impeachment. “The fact that my colleague is already desperate to sign up the Senate for new fact-finding…suggests something to me,” McConnell said of Schumer. “It suggests that even Democrats who do not like this president are beginning to realize how dramatically insufficient the House’s rushed process has been.”

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate