McConnell abruptly eases impeachment limits

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abruptly eased his restrictive proposed rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial , backing off the condensed two-day schedule to add a third for opening arguments after protests from senators, including Republicans.

The trial quickly burst into a partisan fight at the Capitol as the president’s lawyers opened arguments Tuesday in support of McConnell’s plan. Democrats objected loudly to McConnell’s initially proposed rules, and some Republicans made their concerns known in private at a GOP lunch.

Without comment, the Republican leader quietly submitted an amended proposal after meeting behind closed doors with his senators as the trial opened. The handwritten changes would a dd the extra day and allow House evidence to be included in the record. There is still deep disagreement about calling additional witnesses.

“It’s time to start with this trial,” said White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, the president’s lead lawyer in brief remarks as the proceedings opened in public.

“It’s a fair process,” he said. “There is absolutely no case.”

Chief Justice John Roberts gaveled open the session, senators having taken an oath last week to do “impartial justice” as jurors. House House prosecutors were on one side, Trump’s team on the other, in the well of the Senatem as senators sat silent at their desks.

Senators were stunned by McConnell’s shift, and aides offered no immediate answers.

But a spokeswoman for Republican Sen. Susan Collins said that she and others had raised concerns. The Maine senator sees the changes as significant improvements, said spokeswoman Annie Clark.

The turnaround was a swift lesson as the White House’s wishes run into the reality of the Senate. The White House wanted a session crammed into a shorter period to both expedite the trial and shift more of the proceedings into late night, according to a person familiar with the matter but unauthorized to discuss it in public.

“READ THE TRANSCRIPTS!” the president tweeted from miles away, as he returned to his hotel at a global leaders conference in Davos, Switzerland. That’s the transcript of his phone call in which he asked new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiya for “a favor.” The Democrats cite that transcript as solid evidence against Trump, though he repeatedly describes it as “perfect.”

Democrats had warned that the rules package from Trump’s ally, the Senate GOP leader, could force midnight sessions that would keep most Americans in the dark and create a sham proceeding.

“This is not a process for a fair trial, this is the process for a rigged trial” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Ca., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee leading the prosecution, told reporters. He called it a “cover-up.”