Small Group of GOP Senators Push for Witnesses in Senate Impeachment Trial

The impasse regarding President Trump’s ongoing impeachment may soon be over, but not without a fight.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is finally signaling that she will send over the House-passed articles of impeachment sometime next week, setting into motion whatever plan that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has for the coming trial.  If the Kentucky Senator’s previous statements are any indication of the path forward, this adjudication will be swift and vindicating for President Trump.

Of concern for the Democrats is the possibility that McConnell will disallow the calling of witnesses on the basis that the House of Representatives was to be solely responsible for the fact-finding portion of this procedure.

This could be easier said than done, however, as McConnell is now facing backlash from within his own party on the subject of trial witnesses.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Friday that she’s been working with “a fairly small group” of Republican senators to make sure witnesses can be called in President Donald Trump’s impending Senate impeachment trial.

“We should be completely open to calling witnesses,” Collins told reporters in Bangor, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. She declined to say who or how many GOP lawmakers she’s been working with, but said she was “hopeful that we can reach an agreement on how to proceed with the trial that will allow the opportunity for both the House and the president’s counsel if they choose to do so.”

Collins echoed those comments in a statement to NBC News and said, “It is important that both sides be treated fairly.”

Bolstering Collins’ position is a recent statement by former national security adviser John Bolton in which the White House insider admitted that he would be willing to testify in the trial if he were subpoenaed by Congress.