McConnell Changes Trial Rules at Last Minute: Key Takeaways

(Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the last minute changed his rules proposal for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, offering a modified resolution at the start of Tuesday’s trial to make some concessions to Democrats and moderate Republicans.

The changes will ease the frenzied schedule for opening arguments and will accept evidence from the House inquiry. The new version of the rules resolution sticks more closely to the precedent set by Bill Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial but still allows for a potentially quick conclusion.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer initially called the rules a plan for a “cover-up” rather than a trial and said they were designed to benefit the president. Maine Senator Susan Collins was among the Republicans who asked McConnell to make some changes to the original version he proposed Monday, according to her spokeswoman.

Debating, and possibly changing, the resolution is the next order of business as the Senate trial gets underway.

Here are the key takeaways:

GOP changes trial schedule at last minute

McConnell changed his rules resolution to give both the House managers and Trump’s defense team 24 hours of floor time over three days to make their arguments. The version presented at the start of the trial was different than McConnell’s rules proposal released Monday, which would have given each side just two days each to use their allotted time.

This relaxes the schedule for the impeachment managers to argue their case. But with the proceedings each day getting underway at 1 p.m., the trial could still see some late nights.

“Senator Collins and others raised concerns about the 24 hours of opening statements in 2 days,” said Annie Clark, a Collins spokeswoman. “Her position has been that the trial should follow the Clinton model as much as possible. She thinks these changes are a significant improvement.”

Read the Updated Version of McConnell's Rules Resolution

McConnell is still planning a speedy trial completion, especially if no witnesses are called. If the majority leader can keep his party united against witnesses and fresh evidence, Trump could still be acquitted as early as next week.

Rules also changed to admit House evidence

Another surprise change from McConnell to the trial rules would allow House evidence to be admitted into the Senate record unless at least 51 senators object.

McConnell initially proposed not automatically accepting the record of evidence compiled by the House, as it was during the Clinton trial. But the rules resolution presented at the start of the trial would accept the House record, despite complaints from some Republicans that the House inquiry didn’t allow Trump his full due process rights.

House impeachment managers will use the evidence as part of their arguments in the Senate, potentially adding material that wasn’t part of the original impeachment inquiry, such as documents from Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani.

Trump’s team can move to dismiss charges

The rules would also allow the president’s team to seek a quick dismissal of the charges, though McConnell has said there aren’t enough votes in the GOP-led chamber for it to pass. Many Republican senators have said they should at least hear the case.

During the Clinton trial, a motion to dismiss was considered toward the end of the trial, and it was advanced by a U.S. senator, not the White House. That motion, which failed, was offered by Senator Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat.

The White House immediately backed McConnell’s rules but didn’t indicate whether it would press for a quick vote on a motion to dismiss, which could be offered as soon as Wednesday.

“Protecting the president’s rights to offer pretrial motions was critical for us to support the package, and we’re very gratified with the resolution,” Eric Ueland, the White House’s liaison to Congress, said. “I’m not going to talk about trial strategy publicly.”

Moderate GOP senators get vote on whether to call witnesses

Neither side will be allowed to call witnesses or seek documents under the proposed rules unless a majority of the Senate votes to allow such motions after the opening phase of the trial, including up to 16 hours of senators’ questions.

McConnell had initially pushed Senate Republicans to consider a trial with no witnesses, but that ran into opposition from at least four Republicans who want to vote on whether to hear additional testimony. They are: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Mitt Romney of Utah.

The resolution will allow the Senate to take a roll call vote on whether to hear from more witnesses.

If that succeeds, Schumer wants to call four witnesses, including White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Advisor John Bolton. But to win, Schumer will need the support of at least four Republicans, and it’s not clear the four who simply want a vote on the matter of witnesses would be with him.

There is a risk for Democrats, because Republicans may seek to call their own witnesses. Trump also threatened to invoke executive privilege to limit or block testimony from Bolton or current members of the administration.

--With assistance from Billy House and Daniel Flatley.

To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net;Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton, Kevin Whitelaw

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