Donald Trump Impeachment Trial Should Be Suspended To Make Way For Investigation, Senator Says
Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse believes Donald Trump’s impeachment trial should be suspended to make way for an investigation into his administration’s communications that took place amid the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“Suspend trial to depose McCarthy and Tuberville under oath and get facts,” he wrote in a Friday Twitter thread.
“Ask Secret Service to produce for review comms back to White House re VP Pence safety during siege. What did Trump know, and when did he know it?”
The remark was part of a thread on the recent CNN report about Trump and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s alleged heated phone call amid the Capitol chaos. Notably, the GOP leader reportedly attempted to get Trump to call off his supporters. In response, the president allegedly brushed off the lawmaker’s pleas.
Elsewhere, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville claimed he spoke to Trump during a phone conversation with journalists and notified him that then-Vice President Mike Pence was in danger and being evacuated from the building. Around the same time, Trump sent out a tweet attacking Pence for lacking the “courage” to prevent Democrat Joe Biden from being certified the victor of the 2020 election.
According to Whitehouse, Trump’s legal team has an ethical obligation — “duty of candor to a tribunal” — to address the recent developments. In particular, he argued that it’s the duty of the real estate mogul’s lawyers to “clean” up its purported “misrepresentations” of his actions on the day of the riot.
Per The Hill, the Senate voted in favor of called witnesses to testify in the impeachment probe — a move that allegedly shocked Trump’s defense.
“One source in touch with the legal team said that at least one aide assisting the defense had to scrap vacation plans scheduled to begin on Sunday, as Washington grappled with the new reality that the trial could drag on for days or weeks,” the publication reported.
As of now, the prosecution said it wants to subpoena Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler; it has not yet named McCarthy, as Whitehouse suggested. Conversely, Trump attorney Michael Van Der Veen said he would attempt to call his own witnesses, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
As The Inquisitr reported, Trump was reported to be “rooting” for the rioters as they stormed the Capitol. Reports of the former head of state’s positive attitude towards the chaos conflict with the arguments of his lawyers, who argued he tried to quell the violence.
