On Wednesday, December 18, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump. This did not remove him from office, as the Senate holds a trial to determine whether or not President Trump should be acquitted. Currently, the details regarding the Senate trial are unknown, and the trial will not proceed until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell releases those details. Here are the most recent updates regarding the impeachment of President Trump.

On Tuesday, January 7, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that President Trump’s impeachment would continue without pledging to call new witnesses would or hearing new evidence for the Senate trial. 

His decision came after many weeks of tension between the two parties about how the Senate trial would be handled. However, the details of the trial have not been released. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said that she will not send the two articles of impeachment to the Senate until the plan is released but insinuated that the time to send the articles is “soon.”

“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,” she wrote in a letter to colleagues.

McConnell has said that he will model the trial on former President Clinton’s impeachment proceedings, the most recent example of impeachment.

“All we are doing here is saying we are going to get started in exactly the same way 100 senators agreed to 20 years ago,” McConnell said. “What was good enough for President Clinton is good enough for President Trump.”

Clinton’s impeachment process gave an opportunity for witnesses to speak, and a few Republicans and many Democrats have expressed interest in calling new witnesses.

“Going with the Clinton impeachment process is satisfactory to me because that process did provide, down the road, for an opportunity to hear from witnesses,” Utah Senator Mitt Romney said. “And I would like to hear from John Bolton.” 

Romney and others would like Bolton, President Trump’s former National Security Adviser who resigned in September of 2019, to testify because he could potentially have “many relevant meetings and conversations” connected to the Ukraine campaign. Bolton’s lawyer has stated that Bolton will be willing to testify as long as a court rules that he should ignore White House instructions to stay silent.

Many witnesses that did testify cite Bolton as a central figure in Ukraine matters, also saying that Bolton became frustrated with the efforts of people around the president to pressure Ukraine into investigations.

Previous impeachment coverage: https://thelibertylivewire.com/2762/news/trump-impeached-by-house-of-representatives-on-december-18th/