Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer proposed in a letter released on Sunday that at least four witnesses, including acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton, be subpoenaed to testify in the expected impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
In the letter to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Schumer proposed that Mulvaney and Bolton be subpoenaed for the trial expected in January along with a Mulvaney adviser, Robert Blair, and a budget official, Michael Duffey.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives is expected to vote on the charges against Trump this week, setting up a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Schumer suggested it could begin as soon as January 7 with the swearing-in of US Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside.
On Friday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment that charge Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors.
Democrats accuse the president of endangering the US Constitution, jeopardizing national security and undermining the integrity of the 2020 election by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to investigate his Democratic political rival Joe Biden.
Trump denies wrongdoing and has condemned the inquiry as a hoax.
The White House has made clear that Trump “wants to have a trial in the Senate because it’s clearly the only chamber where he can expect fairness and receive due process under the Constitution.”
Schumer said the witnesses he proposed had “direct knowledge of Administration decisions” related to the charges. He said he would be open to additional witnesses, and proposed subpoenas be issued for some documents from the administration.
A spokesman for McConnell said, according to Reuters, “Leader McConnell has made it clear he plans to meet with Leader Schumer to discuss the contours of a trial soon. That timeline has not changed.”
Bolton was invited by Democrats to appear for a deposition as part of the impeachment investigation last month, but did not attend. Reports later said he would be willing to testify before Congress in the impeachment investigations but only if a court rules on a congressional subpoena.