Friday, the U.S. Senate voted to not introduce any new witnesses or evidence in the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump (R). All the Democratic Senators, including Senator Doug Jones, D-Alabama, voted in favor of additional witnesses especially former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Senate candidate and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions denounced Jones for voting with his party on the key impeachment vote.
“The Democrats have endeavored to make this impeachment as painful as possible for the President, and Doug Jones has stuck with them every step of the way,” Sessions charged.
“As I have argued for weeks, Nancy Pelosi’s Articles of Impeachment did not allege a single crime,” Sessions explained. “Adam Schiff and the House Managers failed to allege a single crime in their case to the Senate. And today they asked the Senate to reopen the process to call for more witnesses. They want to conduct a fishing expedition in search of a crime, and Doug Jones voted to give them a fishing license. Thank goodness the Senate said ‘No.’”
“Doug Jones and the Democrats have made a mockery of the grave impeachment process,” Sessions added. “The radical Left is angry we elected President Trump. They fear his success. They want to overturn his election, and Doug Jones has enabled them at every turn. It’s time for the Senate to put an end to the entire saga, clear the President of these ridiculous charges, and get back to work for the American people.”
The impeachment trial adjourned for the weekend and will resume on Monday with closing arguments. Tuesday, Senators will be given an opportunity to express their opinions on record in the trial. The Senate is expected to vote to acquit the President on both articles of impeachment on Wednesday.
The House of Representatives interviewed 18 witnesses and introduced over 29,000 documents during weeks of hearings, many of them in closed door sessions of the House Intelligence Committee. All of this was entered into evidence and transferred to the Senate with the two Articles of Impeachment. The Senate heard six days of opening arguments from both the Democratic House impeachment managers and the President’s defense team; then they had a question and answer session with the lawyers for the prosecution and the defense. On Friday, the Republican majority in the Senate voted that they have heard enough and passed a resolution to move on to the conclusion of the case.
Republican Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine) voted with the Democrats on the introduction of witnesses; though they voted with the Republicans on the resolution setting the calendar for the resolution of the impeachment trial. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) voted with the Republican majority on every issue.
The vote was 51 to 49 to bar the testimony of additional witnesses.
Jeff Sessions served in the Senate for over twenty years before vacating his position to become Attorney General in 2017. Jones won the special election for the remainder of Sessions’ term later that year by defeating former Chief Justice Roy Moore (R).
Sessions is joined by Moore, Congressman Bradley Byrne, Ruth Page Nelson, former Auburn head football Coach Tommy Tuberville, businessman Stanley Adair, and State Representative Arnold Mooney in the Republican primary race on March 3.
Original reporting by NBC News and the Hill contributed to this report.
