Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), one of the most independent Senate GOP voices, said Tuesday he is “comfortable” with using the precedent set by the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial, which delayed the question of considering witnesses and additional documents.
Romney said he supports Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) position that the Senate should first pass an organizing resolution that sets up the opening arguments by House impeachment managers and President Trump’s defense team, and punt on the question of whether to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton and other witnesses.
That’s what the Senate voted 100-0 to do at the start of Clinton’s trial, which McConnell has claimed as a powerful precedent.
“I think the Clinton impeachment process provides a pathway for witnesses to be heard so I’m comfortable with that process,” Romney said Tuesday.
That position doesn’t foreclose the possibility of hearing witness testimony at a later date, but it does mean that Senate Republicans will support an organizing resolution that falls short of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) procedural demands.
Schumer argues that the trial rules won’t be fair unless they require up front that four key witnesses testify: Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, senior Mulvaney adviser Robert Blair, and senior Office of Management and Budget official Michael Duffey.
“More important than precedent is the fact that it plainly doesn’t make sense to have both sides present their arguments first and then — afterward — ask for the evidence we know is out there. The evidence should inform the trial, not the other way around,” Schumer said Monday.