House impeachment manager Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) claimed on Tuesday if the GOP-controlled Senate refused to hear from new impeachment witnesses, it would mean that President Trump was guilty.
“If the Senate and the senate leadership … will not allow the calling of witnesses or the presentation of documents, If [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell makes this the first impeachment trial in history without witnesses or documents, it will not prove the president innocent,” Schiff, who is also chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said.
“It will merely prove the Senate guilty of working with the president to obstruct the truth from coming out, so I do think that by structuring the trial this way, it furthers our case that what’s going on here really is a cover-up of evidence to the American people,” he told reporters.
Schiff comments come after McConnell altered the Senate rules somewhat to make them more fair to minority Democrats. But Schiff disagreed anyway, saying that the rules still favored the president.
McConnell made it clear during a floor speech in the Senate chamber that he will not pre-commit to allowing new evidence before hearing the Democrats’ arguments for convicting Trump.
Also, he noted that no one pushed the House’s hand to rush the impeachment inquiry, adding that they could have waited for more evidence if they thought it necessary.
McConnell then stressed that the GOP-led Senate would not do the Democrat-controlled House’s investigation, as the upper chamber is only constitutionally tasked with hearing case evidence and allowing the president’s legal team time to refute it.