Schumer Falsely Claims There Have Been 'No Witnesses, No Documents' During Impeachment

Matt Margolis | 10:06 PM on January 31, 2020

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters as President Donald Trump's impeachment trial shifts to questions from senators, a pivotal juncture as Republicans lack the votes to block witnesses and face a potential setback in their hope of ending the trial with a quick acquittal, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was noticeably outraged by the Senate’s vote Friday against compelling more witnesses and documents, calling it a “tragedy on a very large scale.”

“No witnesses, no documents in an impeachment trial is a perfidy. It is a grand tragedy. One of the worst tragedies that the Senate has overcome. America will remember this day, unfortunately,” Schumer added.

.@SenSchumer "To not allow… no witnesses, no documents, in an impeachment trial is a perfidy. It's a grand tragedy. One of the worst tragedies that the Senate has overcome. America will remember this day unfortunately." pic.twitter.com/MtmpyTCGut

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 31, 2020

Unfortunately for him, he’s completely wrong. The facts are the Senate has received documents and testimony. The only real tragedy was the mockery that House Democrats made of their impeachment inquiry when Adam Schiff refused to allow Republicans to call any of their own witnesses.

Let’s examine the “no documents, no witnesses” lie further.

Jenna Ellis, a constitutional law attorney and the senior legal advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign, destroyed the Schumer lie by breaking down impeachment by the numbers on Twitter. PJ Media has generated the following graphic from those numbers:

Does that look like “no witnesses, no documents” to you? Who really blocked witnesses, Republicans or Democrats? Schumer should direct his anger at House Democrats for botching their impeachment. They’re the ones who claimed they had a solid case and rushed to vote for impeachment before Christmas, only to hold it up in the House for a month. They’re the ones who failed to make their case but impeached Trump anyway without being able to convince a single Republican. The only tragedy here is that Democrats put us through a sham, partisan impeachment and wasted time that could have been spent doing the business of the American people.

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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis