Clean up on Senate isle one. I wrote a Saturday that there was no chance for witnesses. I now have to retract that claim with the introduction of this stink bomb that just blew up the main argument made Saturday by the Trump defense team who vehemently pressed that there was no direct evidence that the President had used his office to investigate his political rivals. Of course there was, there always was. They knew it, the Senate knew it the majority of the American people knew it.
Now there will be the direct first hand testimony from at least John Bolton that in fact the President withheld aid to investigate the Bidens. Bolton’s revelation is now in the public domain and not subject to claims of executive privilege. His testimony will likely implicate others who also have direct knowledge. (If we don’t see William Barr and Mike Pompeo being called in this trial. They will surely be sitting in a public hearing one day). Any witnesses that are named are now relieved to testify since executive privilege cannot be used to hide misdeeds. Looks like Chief Justice John Roberts is going to have to earn his keep here as he will surely be called on to rule in this matter. He’s not going to go down in history as complicit in this “drug deal”.
This means that the defense must pivot to try to make the Bidens the story. They have no other recourse but to to try to put them on trial. If they press for Joe Biden’s testimony, that is going to be a major tactical error on their part. Biden can fully explain the history of Ukraine’s fight for independence and its strategic importance to America’s interest. The votes and the complicit acts of Senators in that room who agreed to withhold aid in order to remove a corrupt prosecutor will further expose their hypocrisy.
Should he be called, Biden’s son Hunter will have nothing to offer the proceedings relevant to the facts in the case. It will be transparent as to the intention of Republicans to allow a vote to pass for his testimony.
This is a nightmare, no win situation for Senate Republicans and they deserve every bit of it.