By Aaron Miller-
The U.S Senate has rejected Schumer amendments to subpoena White House witnesses along party line vote, 53-47. The Senate voted to brush aside Schumer’s amendment to subpoena witnesses and documents from the White House echo views from Democrats that the Republicans have always wanted an unfair trial, instead of a fair one.
Allegations of a cover-up has persisted in the impeachment trial of the American president, as the battle for unseen documents to be released continues to escalate. The call for witnesses to participate in the impeachment investigation has also continued to hit a brick wall, with hard core Republicans loyal to the president refusing to yield to mounting pressure to both release unseen documents and include witnesses in the historic trial.
Schumer has proposed a fresh amendment to subpoena documents from the State Department related to calls between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy. There have also been calls for documents revealing communication between the president and his national security team. He was 6,000 miles away in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum
Focus has again been directed at alleged orders from president Trump to withhold funds from Ukraine after the Office of Management and Budget called for the release of the all important funds which should have been procedurally given to support U.S partner Ukraine.
Documents that would provide insight into critical aspects of the military hold would reveal the concerns expressed by experts including lawyers, Democrats say.
They are adamant those documents would reveal concerns about the freeze showing how the president withheld U.S national funds to compromise the security of the U.S. Multiple documents known as the O and B documents which exists but have not been turned over in response to subpoena’s by Congress.
The withholding of military aid authorised by Congress of over $250m to Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression which also benefits the U.S. The withholding of the aid was affirmed to be illegal, and the first of its kind by the president of the United States in an attempt to coerce a country at war to cheat in order to help him win the next election.
Mr Schumer has now proposed his third amendment to subpoena documents from the Office of Management and Budget. Trump is accused of violating a process which takes place every year.
“And that was explained to the House, to manager Schiff and the other chairman of the committees at the time in that October 18th letter. Did the House take any steps to remedy that? Did they try to dispute that? Did they go to court? Did they do anything to resolve that problem? No.
Defenders of the U.S president said President Trump has withheld aid to other countries in the past when he had legitimate reasons to do so. During the ongoing debate in congress, advocates of president Trump cited an example president Obama in 2013 withheld hundreds of millions to Egypt in 2013.
Trump’s opponents stress that the withdrawal of funds to Egypt was entirely different because of a revolution at the time, requiring particular consideration in relation to aids.