Jordan says he thinks trial will be over by next week

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), one of the members of Trump’s legal defense team, said he thinks the Senate impeachment trial will wrap up by late next week and that senators will go for a vote without witness testimony. 

On an appearance on Fox News Friday morning, Jordan said he believes the Democrats won’t be able to convince the GOP-controlled Senate to bring in witnesses, meaning the trial will last only until Trump’s defense team is done making their case, which will likely be late next week. 

“I feel real confident that hopefully next week we’ll get this decision and get this thing over with it and get on to the business of the American people,” Jordan said. “When you have [Democrats] talking for this long and not seeming to move anyone, the American people don’t seem to be tuning into this as much as we might have anticipated, I think it looks good for the president.”

Jordan, a member of the House Intelligence and House Judiciary committees, was one of the president’s fiercest defenders during the House impeachment hearings. Both he and Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), who also serves on both committees, were recruited to Trump’s legal defense team when proceedings moved to the upper chamber.

Democrats have been advocating for calling in new witnesses central to the July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky since the House impeachment hearings. The White House has denied several subpoenas from Congress, and earlier Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said calling in other witnesses would “substantially prolong” the trial. 

Jordan said if Democrats decide to bring in witnesses, the whistleblower whose complaint about the Ukraine call sparked the impeachment inquiry should testify too, a talking point Jordan and other Republicans have maintained since the House hearings. 

“If they’re going to go down this road — I hope they don’t, but if they do, if Democrats insist on witnesses and they get a few Republicans to vote with them — I don’t think that’s going to happen, but if they go down that road, you have to go all the way down it and whistleblower should come and testify,” Jordan said.  “I don’t think they should, I don’t think that will happen.”

However, questions still remain about whether certain moderate Republicans like Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) will vote to call additional witnesses to the trial. Collins in particular has received attention recently as her actions during this impeachment trial have made headlines in the media. 

The Maine senator has said in the past in a statement that she would be open to voting to call witnesses, though she has not indicated one way or another her definitive decision.