Impeachment: The Fat Lady is warming up in the wings

The impeachment trial of Still-President Trump is all but over. That's according to third-most senior Republican Senator John Barrasso, who told Thomson-Reuters it was possible the trial could end on Friday without witnesses being called, as urged by the Democrats.

"The momentum is clearly in the direction of moving to final judgment on Friday," he said. "That vote will be Friday. We still have a couple of members who said they want to listen to the answers to questions, but that's where the momentum is."

Yesterday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who's in charge of the persecution of the President, tried to convince the Senate that it had to subpoena more witnesses and documents because... wait for it... it could not "rely on what was investigated in the House."

Cazart! Did he really mean to admit that the House investigation was insufficient, even as fellow House impeachment manager Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) claimed that the impeachment case had already been "proven beyond any doubt at all. See "Senate refuses Dem motions to delay hearing their 'unassailable case'", WWW 21/1/20.

Mr Schiff claimed that it would be unprecedented to hold a Senate trial without witnesses. He had previously denied all Republican requests for new witnesses in the House Intelligence Committee, which he chairs, but this is different, see, because this is the Senate and, errr, we haven't had a chance to bring forward all the important new evidence which we suddenly manufactured... errr, discovered.

In the marathon question-and-answer sessions which are expected to wrap up today, the Democrats repeatedly stressed the need to call former National Security Adviser John Bolton. But Republicans noted that Mr Schiff did not want to have the so-called "whistleblower" (Eric Ciaramella?) testify, and had hidden a key transcript that could reveal details about how the complaint against the president had been launched.

When asked why the Senate should call more witnesses and documents if the House Intelligence Committee would not release the testimony of the Intelligence Community Inspector General, Mr Schiff dodged the query, saying that whatever deficiencies the House may or may not have brought to the Senate were not "sufficient to relieve the Senate of the obligation to have a trial." Mr Schiff reported channelled Vince offer, exclaiming "But wait! There's more!"

During a break in the Q&A, Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) was asked if the Dumbocrats' fight for witnesses was lost. "I don't know that for sure one way or the other," he said, but called the tone and questions of senators "not encouraging." The Schiff show continues. Stay tuned...