Lindsey Graham: I Will Call Adam Schiff to Testify in the Senate

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday evening that he will call Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to testify in the Senate if the House impeaches President Donald Trump.

Graham added that he would not allow a trial of President Donald Trump in the Senate based on hearsay evidence alone, and without testimony from the “whistleblower.”

Graham was speaking after the close of the first day of public hearings in the House Intelligence Committee as part of the “impeachment inquiry” authorized by Democrats in a House resolution that passed on party lines October 31.

After the first two witnesses testified, Democrats on the committee voted along party lines to table a motion made by Republicans to call the “whistleblower” — who admitted having no first-hand knowledge — to testify in person.

Republicans — notably Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) — pointed out that neither of the two witnesses would qualify to testify in court, since they only had “hearsay” evidence, i.e. they did not see or hear anything relevant themselves.

The Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the right to confront one’s accuser, excludes hearsay evidence in most circumstances — especially when the direct evidence, in this case the transcript of the telephone call between the president and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

Graham, as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a former impeachment manager during the trial of former President Bill Clinton, would have considerable sway over the procedural rules the Senate would adopt for Trump’s trial if the House impeaches the president.

He declared that he would bar any case against the president based on hearsay alone, suggesting the prospects of a motion to dismiss. “Any resolution setting up a trial in the Senate — I’m going to make sure that hearsay cannot be the basis of an impeachment investigation,” he said.

“If you excluded hearsay, like every other court in the land, there’s nothing there,” he added. “If you invoked the hearsay rule, what would be left?” He described impeachment based on hearsay as “a threat to the presidency itself.”

Graham added that he would require that the “whistleblower” testify.

“Any trial in the Senate must expose the whistleblower so the president can confront his accuser. I will not accept a trial in the Senate until I know who the whistleblower is,” he said.

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