A key GOP senator in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial said it should proceed the same as Bill Clinton’s in 1999, but she’d like to hear more information after the case has been presented and would consider calling more witnesses.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine protested Thursday afternoon about what she said has been “a lot of mischaracterization and misunderstanding about my position on the process the Senate should follow for the impeachment trial.”
Opening arguments will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday after the Senate formally received House Democrat-authored impeachment articles Thursday. Chief Justice John Roberts swore in the senators who will decide if Trump is guilty of impeachable crimes and should be removed from office.
As a GOP moderate who is facing reelection, Collins is widely seen as a possible swing vote who could side with Democrats who want additional witnesses called in during Trump’s impeachment trial.
Democrats are claiming new evidence coming to light almost daily necessitates the need to call more witnesses than they did during Trump’s impeachment hearings in the House.
“From the outset, I have said that we should follow the model that we used with the Clinton impeachment trial,” said Collins, who also served as a senator during Clinton’s trial. “At the conclusion of that phase of the 1999 trial, the Senate voted on a motion to subpoena witnesses and admit additional materials after the case had been heard and the questions had been posed.
“I voted in favor of that motion subpoenaing witnesses.”
Collins said in Trump’s trial, like Clinton’s, “both sides should have the opportunity to state their case and the senators should have the opportunity to pose questions.
“Then, the Senate should have an up-or-down-vote on whether to subpoena witnesses and documents.”
Collins believes “having additional information would be helpful. It is likely that I would support a motion to call witnesses at that point in the trial just as I did in 1999.”
However, Collins will not support any attempts to subpoena document or witnesses prior to hearing the case.
Also, “I have not made a decision on any particular witnesses,” Collins said. “When we reach the appropriate point in the trial, I would like to hear from both sides about which witnesses, if any, they would like to call.”
The House approved transmitting the articles by a party-line vote of 228-193. The approval of Pelosi’s seven impeachment managers also appropriated taxpayer funds that will be used in Trump’s trial.
The impeachment managers hand-delivered the impeachment articles to the Senate on Wednesday evening.
The House voted Dec. 18 to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his conduct toward Ukraine.
Trump is the third president to be impeached in U.S. history. The others are Clinton and, in 1868, Andrew Johnson. President Richard Nixon resigned before the House could impeach him.
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