Senators blocked the proposals made by the Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer to bring witnesses, documents about Ukraine, and call the White House chief of staff Mick Mulvani.
The Republican-controlled US Senate on Tuesday rejected Democrats’ demands for new evidence and witnesses during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. This decision is in favor of Trump’s lawyers, according to Reuters.
Senators cast 53 votes in favor and 47 against in order to block Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer’s three proposals. They concerned the involvement in the trial of records of interrogations of witnesses and documents from the White House, the State Department and the Office of Budget Management, which are related to the relationship between Trump and the leadership of Ukraine.
Senators also rejected a request to send a summons to testify to Acting Chief of Staff of the White House Miku Mulvani.
White House lawyer Pat Cipollone, who heads Trump’s defense, questioned the argumentation of the prosecution, noting that Democrats have not come close to meeting the impeachment standard provided for in the US Constitution.
“The only conclusion will be that the President did absolutely nothing wrong”, – Chipollone said.
Senate Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, amended the resolution determining the procedure for impeaching the US President in the upper house of Congress. McConnell gave the prosecution and defense parties three days each to express their opening arguments, the total duration of which can be no more than 24 hours.
Prior to this, each party was given two days of 12 hours, which would mean holding hearings late at night.
According to McConnell’s plan, Trump’s lawyers may ask senators to dismiss all charges at the start of the trial.