Hundreds of lawyers ask McConnell for ‘impartial justice’ in Trump impeachment trial

Hundreds of attorneys have signed an open letter urging Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold an impartial trial of President Trump once the Senate receives impeachment articles from the House.

The letter issued Tuesday counters McConnell’s statements on CNN that he was “not impartial about this at all” and that “impeachment is a political decision.”

Citing the Constitution, the letter says that just because Senators promote their partisan interests during the legislative process, it does not mean they can do so as judges and jurors for impeachment.

“As the adjudicators of impeachment, they have a duty to serve in a quasi-judicial capacity,” the letter read.

The letter continues, saying that the Constitution also describes impeachment as a judicial process, not political.

“Leader McConnell’s notion that the impeachment process does not have judicial character and implicitly gives him and other senators free rein to conduct the trial as biased political partisans is indefensible,” the letter read.

Those who signed the letter include former Texas assistant attorney general Joseph Velasquez and Harvard law professor and former Massachusetts attorney general Laurence Tribe, a prominent critic of President Trump.

The letter comes as McConnell says that he has the votes to set the ground rules of the trial, without support from Democrats. Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer repeatedly has called for allowing new witnesses at the trial, including former national security advisor John Bolton, who said he would be willing to testify.

“We have the votes once the impeachment trial has begun to pass a resolution, essentially the same, very similar to the 100-to-nothing vote in the (President) Clinton trial,” McConnell said.

He said the trial would begin with arguments from the prosecution and defense, followed with written questions. After that, he said the issue of calling witnesses would be addressed, “and not before the trial begins.”

Schumer said afterward, “There will be votes on the four witnesses we’ve asked for.”