PoliticoDonald Trump won’t testify at his second impeachment trial
- The ex-US president ‘will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding,’ his spokesman says
- Republican lawmakers object to the move, with some Democrats agreeing, saying it would make the trial a ‘dog-and-pony show’
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Andrew Desiderio and Sarah Ferris on politico.com on February 4, 2021.
Donald Trump will not testify in the Senate’s upcoming impeachment trial, a spokesman for the former president said on Thursday, explicitly rejecting a request from House Democrats.
Jason Miller, a spokesman for the ex-president, said Trump “will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding”, echoing the central theme of Trump’s defence in the trial.
In a letter to Trump earlier Thursday, the House’s lead impeachment manager congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, said Trump’s testimony was necessary because his lawyers’ first official response to the impeachment charge “denied many factual allegations set forth in the article of impeachment”.
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“You have thus attempted to put critical facts at issue notwithstanding the clear and overwhelming evidence of your constitutional offence,” Raskin wrote. “In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, concerning your conduct on January 6, 2021.”