NEW ANALYSIS: Every impeachment trial has had new witnesses

CONTACT: Jordan Libowitz
202-408-5565 | [email protected]

Washington — Every impeachment trial completed in the Senate’s 231 year history has featured witnesses who had not testified in the House, according to an analysis published today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). In each of the 15 impeachment cases completed by the Senate, witnesses who were not heard during the House of Representatives’ impeachment investigations testified in front of the Senate.

To say new witnesses are not an appropriate part of the Senate trial process is totally contrary to history and precedent given that Senators have called forward as many as 50 witnesses who had not testified in the House in previous impeachment trials, and out of the 15 completed trials, only three had fewer than ten new witnesses.

“Throughout this impeachment trial, we have heard the unsupported claim that Senators cannot, and should not, consider testimony from witnesses the House had not already heard from. History certainly proves otherwise,” said CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder. “In the light of the huge new revelations that have come to the public’s attention since the start of the trial and the President’s efforts to keep witnesses and documents out of the House process, the Senate must now do its constitutional duty and call forward any and all appropriate witnesses to ensure a fair, thorough and impartial trial.”