WASHINGTON _ The Senate on Wednesday started the clock on 16 hours of questions from lawmakers _ spread over two days and directed at House impeachment managers and President Donald Trump's attorneys.
But the biggest question looming over the trial won't be answered until later: Will enough Republicans join Democrats to vote in favor of subpoenaing witnesses like former national security adviser John Bolton, or will GOP leaders succeed in keeping their caucus united to bring the trial to a swift end?
A trio of Republicans considered to be potential swing votes on witnesses started the question-and-answer phase shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern time in a process that was likely to last two days.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska asked the president's lawyers what would happen in the event senators concluded that the president had more than one motive in asking Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden _ a personal political reason, as Democrats claim, and another rooted in the national interest, such as addressing Ukraine's corruption, as Republicans have argued.
Their question may indicate that the three _ considered the most likely Republicans to join Democrats in calling for witnesses _ are struggling as they consider the conflicting motives presented about why the Trump administration held up nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine, the centerpiece of the impeachment.
Patrick Philbin, deputy counsel for the president, said that as long as there was a possibility of a public concern, that "destroys" the House's case.
"Once you're into mixed motive land, it's clear that their case fails. There can't possibly be an impeachable offense at all," Philbin said. House managers were not asked to respond to the same question, though Romney had it on his list of questions for Democrats.
Questions were to go back and forth between Republicans and Democrats all day, read aloud by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. The sessions come after six days of oral arguments over Trump's impeachment by the House.
The Senate is expected to address the question of witnesses on Friday. Republican leaders conveyed optimism Wednesday that they would have the votes to defeat the Democrats' attempt to call witnesses and acquit the president as early as Friday.
"The momentum is clearly in the direction of moving to final judgment on Friday," said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate. "We still have a couple of members who said they want to listen to answers to questions. But that's where the momentum is."
Democrats would need to persuade four Republicans to cross the aisle and vote with them to subpoena witnesses and start a debate over who should testify. Although two Republicans _ Romney and Collins _ have indicated they are likely to want to hear from Bolton, it is unclear whether there will be two additional GOP votes. Murkowski, a third potential vote for witnesses, met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday morning but demurred on disclosing her position.
"I am not going to be discussing the witness situation right now," she said. "I've got some more questions that I want to get into the mix. So I've been talking with the folks in the cloakroom about what the universe is to see how we can supplement that."
Other Republicans are deeply skeptical of opening the door to witnesses, arguing that additional testimony won't change the expected outcome: acquittal of the president. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who is facing perhaps the most difficult reelection of any Senate Republican this year, told Colorado Politics that he wouldn't support the vote for witnesses. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said he was "very, very unlikely" to support the measure, too.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., the top Democrat in the Senate, suggested that all Democrats and the two independents that caucus with the party would support the idea of opening the trial to witnesses.
But Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., broke ranks Wednesday by indicating that he would be open to hearing from Hunter Biden, the son of the former vice president. Republicans have threatened to subpoena Hunter Biden if Democrats insist on calling Bolton.
Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that faced corruption allegations while his father was in office. Hunter Biden's position raised conflict-of-interest concerns, but there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
Most Democrats say Hunter Biden's testimony would be immaterial to the impeachment. But Manchin disagreed, calling Hunter Biden a relevant witness.
"Being afraid to put anybody (on the witness list) who might have pertinent information is wrong, no matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican," Manchin said on MSNBC.
At the center of Trump's impeachment was his July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president in which he pressed the foreign leader to announce an investigation into the Bidens. Democrats say that amounts to asking a foreign government to intervene in the 2020 presidential election.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., disclosed for the first time that on Sept. 23 _not long after Bolton left his White House post _ Bolton suggested that Engel's committee look into the recall of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. "He strongly implied that something improper had occurred around her removal as our top diplomat in Kyiv," Engel said.
The House impeachment inquiry concluded that Yovanovitch was pushed aside because she was viewed as a threat to schemes being planned by Trump loyalists.
The revelation was designed to push back on the idea that Bolton hadn't previously raised questions about Trump's behavior. Engel said he found it important to release the detail now to set the record straight because Trump has "called (Bolton's) credibility into question." Trump tweeted Wednesday that Bolton wrote a "nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security."
There is no official time limit on Wednesday's question-and-answer session, but Roberts suggested to lawyers Tuesday that they should adhere to the model set up by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in President Bill Clinton's 1999 impeachment trial of a five-minute limit on answers. If that limit is adhered to and all the time is used, senators could _ in theory _ ask upward of 150 questions.
During the Clinton trial, senators asked about 106 questions, according to the congressional record, and only used about 10 hours over two days. Senators have suggested that they expect to use nearly all of the time this week.
Democratic leaders have collected proposed questions from their side to "avoid duplication and pick the ones in sequences that make sense in terms of delivering a message," according to Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill. Republicans discussed their questions at a closed-door meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Pointed inquiries are expected from Republicans of the lead impeachment manager, Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., including whether he should have pushed harder to get Bolton's testimony during the House investigation. Bolton was asked to testify but was not subpoenaed, with House Democrats arguing that Bolton had made clear he would go to court to fight the subpoena, as one of his close colleagues did.
Both Republicans and Democrats have suggested they have questions about Trump's personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, whose activities in Ukraine were central to the House impeachment.
"I want to confirm that Rudy Giuliani was working personally for the president and not on behalf of the United States of America," said Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he'd like to know why the House never really pursued Giuliani's testimony.
When asked Tuesday, several senators refused to reveal their questions in advance or offered vague outlines.
Gardner said he would ask about executive "privilege and some other questions that concern constitutional rights."
