/ CBS NEWS
Senate Dems plan ahead for impeachment trial
- The House Judiciary Committee submitted a report on impeachment to the Rules Committee early Sunday morning, summarizing the case against the president.
- Senate Democrats demanded multiple witnesses for a potential Senate trial, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
- Download the free CBS News app to stream live coverage of the impeachment proceedings.
Washington — With the House poised to vote to impeach the president as soon as Wednesday, lawmakers have already begun looking ahead to a potential Senate trial in January.
The House Judiciary Committee submitted a report to the House Rules Committee summarizing the articles of impeachment and the investigation into the president's dealings with Ukraine early Sunday morning. The 685-page report is a supplement to the two articles of impeachment the Judiciary Committee approved on Friday: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The Rules Committee will meet Tuesday morning to determine the length of floor debate over the articles, setting up a vote for Wednesday. Senators have already begun looking ahead to a trial in the upper chamber, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer writing a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Sunday night demanding several witnesses be called.
Freshman Democrat explains why she'll vote to impeach
Representative Elissa Slotkin, a freshman Democrat from Michigan, said she will vote to approve both articles of impeachment against the president, explaining her decision in an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press on Monday.
"On abuse of power: I believe that the President illegally solicited the help of foreigners to influence the American political process," Slotkin wrote. "On obstruction of Congress: As I went back and did my research on the previous impeachment processes, it became clear that, in contrast to the proceedings against Andrew Johnson, Nixon and Clinton, President Trump sent out unprecedented guidance to refuse and ignore the requests and subpoenas of the inquiry."
Slotkin was among the first-term members who were reluctant to embrace impeachment until the whistleblower complaint about Mr. Trump's July 25 call with the president of Ukraine. In September, she announced she supported the opening of the impeachment inquiry to investigate the president.
"Since coming out in support of an inquiry, I have held four town halls across the congressional district I represent, and I am holding a fifth one today in Rochester," she wrote Monday. "Since then, my offices have received more than 1,500 phone calls and more than 6,500 emails and letters on the subject. In response, I committed to remaining objective as the inquiry took place, and being transparent about my vote."
A former CIA analyst, Slotkin said she had spent the past several days examining the evidence: "I took a step back, looked at the full body of available information, and tried to make an objective decision on my vote."
House Judiciary Committee releases impeachment report ahead of House vote
The House Judiciary Committee released a report after midnight Monday laying out the case for charging President Trump with two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The 658-page report was filed to the House Rules Committee ahead of a vote by the full House expected to take place Wednesday, when lawmakers will vote on the articles.
The report from the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee arguing President Trump should be impeached and removed from office is divided into four parts: the first describing its impeachment inquiry, the second explaining the standard for impeachment, the third detailing the facts behind the abuse of power charge, and the fourth examining the obstruction of Congress charge.
In describing why Mr. Trump abused his power when he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25 phone call to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, his political rival, the Judiciary panel argued the president's "abuse of power encompassed both the constitutional offense of 'bribery' and multiple federal crimes."
"While there is no need for a crime to be proven in order for impeachment to be warranted, here, President Trump's scheme or course of conduct also encompassed other offenses, both constitutional and criminal in character," the Democrats wrote.
Also included in the report is dissenting views from Republicans who argue the record presented by Democrats is "based on interferences built upon presumptions and hearsay" and claim the allegations in the two articles do not establish impeachable offenses.
"The majority has failed to prove a case for impeachment. In fact, the paltry record on which the majority relies is an affront to the constitutional process of impeachment and will have grave consequences for future presidents," Republicans wrote.
Schumer sends letter to McConnell to set framework for Senate impeachment trial
Schumer sent a letter to McConnell on Sunday that details the witnesses and timeline Senate Democrats would like to see in an impeachment trial in January.
"In the trial of President Clinton, the House Managers were permitted to call witnesses, and it is clear that the Senate should hear testimony of witnesses in this trial as well," Schumer writes.
Schumer proposes that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the Senate trial, issue subpoenas to four administration officials who were asked to testify in the House impeachment inquiry but did not appear: Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security adviser John Bolton, senior adviser to the Acting White House chief of staff Robert Blair and Michael Duffey, associate director for National Security, Office of Management and Budget.
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