WASHINGTON (WFLA) – No new witnesses will be called in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.
The Senate voted Friday against the motion to call additional witnesses like John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney. The final vote was 51 no and 49 yes.
No witnesses: Here’s how every senator voted on motion for subpoenas
The vote on bringing new witnesses in for testimony came after the Senate sat through 16 total hours of questioning on Wednesday and Thursday. Senators questioned prosecutors and the president’s defense team on the cases both sides made in their opening arguments.
Democrats ramped up their push for witnesses this week after news of an unpublished draft of John Bolton’s book surfaced. In that book, the former national security adviser alleges that the president said he wanted to withhold aid from Ukraine until the country helped with investigations into Joe Biden. The president and his defense team have denied those claims.
After that news broke, some Republican Senate members – like Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah – expressed interest in hearing from witnesses like Bolton. Another Republican who was considered a swing vote – the retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee – said Thursday night he would vote against witnesses.
Four Republicans would have had to join Democrats in voting to call witnesses in order for them to testify. Since that did not happen, the trial will likely end in acquittal next week.
Nexstar is bringing you complete coverage of the impeachment trial. Our coverage continues Friday at 1:50 p.m. ET with Evan Donovan, Mahsa Saeidi and Nexstar DC correspondent Kellie Meyer.
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