On the recordJanuary 30, 2020
On behalf of myself and Senator Klobuchar, I send a question to the desk, addressed to the President's counsel and the House managers. The CHIEF JUSTICE. Thank you. The House will go first in answering the question from Senators Coons and Klobuchar: Mr. Sekulow said earlier that the President's Counsel would expect to call their own witnesses in this trial if Mr. Bolton or others are called by the House managers. Can you tell the Senate if any of those witnesses would have first- hand knowledge of the charges against the President and his actions? Mr. Manager SCHIFF. Mr. Justice and Senators, there certainly are witnesses that the President could call with firsthand information. I don't know that they are--the witnesses that they have described so far, their position is, apparently, if you are the chairman of a committee doing an investigation, that makes you a relevant witness. It doesn't--or you all become witnesses in your own investigations. They want to call Joe Biden as a witness. Joe Biden can't tell us why military aid was withheld from Ukraine while it was fighting a war. Joe Biden can't tell us why President Zelensky couldn't get in the door of the White House while the Russian Foreign Minister could. He is not in a position to answer those questions. He can't tell us whether this rises to an impeachable abuse of power, although he probably has opinions on the subject. But are there witnesses they could call? Absolutely.…
