With the rules set out by Mitch McConnell, Republicans will be able to vote to dismiss the impeachment outright. And if that doesn’t pass, they can vote to pre-ban all witnesses and documents. And if that doesn’t pass, they can depose every witness in secret first and only allow in testimony that they think should be heard. And if somehow that still isn’t enough hurdles to stop officials from testifying … that’s not the end.
Because both Donald Trump’s legal team and Republicans within the Senate are working to make sure that critical witnesses—including John Bolton—never appear in front of the very limited, McConnell-controlled, impeachment camera. Meaning that Republican senators, having just signed onto an agreement to be impartial jurors, are working behind the scenes to make sure that the public never hears the evidence.
As The Washington Post reports, Republicans are already past “gaming out” what happens if McConnell’s scheme doesn’t erect sufficient roadblocks to prevent the possibility of witnesses at the Senate trial. They’re working on what the Post describes as “Plan B.” The B in this case, stands for Bolton. As in … no Bolton.
Going into this trial, McConnell and company figure they have this thing completely in the bag. Sure, a majority of Americans already support Trump’s removal even before the trial begins, but an even bigger majority of Americans already live in states where they’re not represented by Republican Senators. So long as the trial can be kept confined to last night hours, and deprived of information, and forced to limp along without even the evidence collected in the House, there’s zero danger of a single drop of Republican sweat over voting along strictly pro-Trump lines.
The concern for McConnell et. al. is that if any real witnesses appear, or any new documents are produced, they might actually lead to discussion of the issues, rather than an off-hand claim that the founders didn’t know what they were doing.
So just in case officials like Bolton clear hurdles one through four, Trump has raised a wall of his own. He’s already informed his Fox friends that should Bolton’s name appear on a list of witnesses, he would claim executive privilege “for the sake of the office.” That’s even though no such claim was made about any witness called for the Clinton impeachment … but then, Clinton is not a Republican.
Even that is not the end of the barriers. Should Bolton vault all the previous hurdles and decide to ignore Trump’s threats, those completely impartial Republican members of the jury have already worked with the White House to plan out a wall beyond the wall. In this case, it means taking Bolton to court to order him not to testify … even if he is subpoenaed to testify. Just as with the court challenges made concerning testimony to the House, the White House knows that these efforts are patently ridiculous and doomed to fail. It also knows that it doesn’t matter, because the whole intent is simply to waste time.
And the Senate trial has no time. McConnell’s rules give 24 hours for laying out the entire case against Trump. The odds that such a deadline would be extended just because the White House sues a witness, or it shows three feet, or the Yellowstone super volcano blows is all about the same: zero.
Republicans have placed at least six barriers between John Bolton saying he would testify, and Bolton actually opening his mouth before the Senate. And that’s even assuming that Bolton is being truthful when he says he would come if subpoenaed. It’s also assuming that Bolton has some information worth talking about, and isn’t only taking this whole position as part of his own little extortion scheme to scare up more dollars from some far-right fund that would simply love to make a hefty contribution in exchange for his silence.
But then, the unpredictability of what Bolton might say is the reason that Republicans are absolutely determined that he not say anything. Because as far as they’re concerned, both the sound of silence and late night darkness really are their old friends.