subpoenaed by the senate. the u.s. house voted to impeach president trump last wednesday on two counts, abuse of power of congress. house speaker nancy pelosi has not yet sent to articles of impeachment to the u.s. senate. senator schumer: thank you for coming, merry christmas, happy holidays, happy hanukkah, happy kwanzaa, happy everything to everyone. i hope you have a good holiday season with your families and hope you don't have to work on christmas day. now, more than a week ago, i sent a letter to senator mcconnell -- sorry, more than a week ago, i sent a letter to senator mcconnell outlining a proposed structure for a fair and honest impeachment trial in the senate.

nothing dilatory, nothing prolonged, but what joe friday said on "dragnet." just the facts, ma'am. president trump said he wants due process. our proposal gives it to him. the tradition of due process is when you are accused, you get to confront your accuser and make your case. we urge president trump to do that, through documents and witnesses. we have said from the beginning that there are two components that are necessary for a full and fair trial. first, the senate should hear testimony under oath from four key witnesses, all of whom would have eyewitness direct knowledge of what happened in relation to these charges. they should include michael duffey, associate director of national security at the office

of management and budget and second and just as importantly, the senate should issue subpoenas for a limited set of documents that we believe will shed additional light on the administration's decision making regarding the delay in security assistance funding to ukraine and its requests for certain investigations to be announced by the government of ukraine. the need for the senate to review documentary evidence has received far less attention than the need for witness testimony despite being an equally important aspect of the trial and getting the facts to come out. we don't know what these documents will say. just as we don't know what the witnesses will say. they may actually be exculpatory of president trump or they may be further condemning of president trump, but they should come out. we should see these documents no matter what they say.

today, i sent a letter to all my senate colleagues, 99 of them, every democrat, every republican, detailing the specific documents we're requesting. the documents can be broken down into three evidentiary categories. first, documents related to the effort to induce and pressure ukraine to announce certain political investigations. second, documents related to the order to hold and later release military assistance to ukraine. and third, documents related to the withholding of a white house meeting that was desperately sought by the newly elected president of ukraine. and it's hard to overstate how important this meeting was to president zelensky and hard to

overstate how withholding it was so harmful to him and could have been used as a lever. it's especially astonishing that president trump has hosted russian officials below the level of president in the oval office but withhold a meeting with the ukranian president. why? ukraine is our alley, russia is our adversary. withholding a meeting with one of our allies while welcoming an adversary with open arms sends a stunning message to the world , especially putin, and raises many questions. the emails we are requesting are necessary to get to the bottom of it. why this happened? why secondary russian officials got meeting with president trump and zelensky was denied one. let me be clear, our request for

documents is not a new demand, nor would it create a time-consuming production effort. i think most of america wants to see all the facts come out, but not in a dilatory way. we have a slogan in america, that at the core of our justice, it's called speedy and fair trial. that is just what we want. we don't want it dilatory, but we want it fair, and fair means documents, witnesses. it's hard to imagine a trial not having documents and witnesses. if it doesn't have documents and witnesses, it's going to seem to most of the american people that it is a sham trial, a show trial, not to get at the facts. it's simply about getting the truth. senator mcconnell has come up with no good reason while the trial shouldn't have these witnesses or documents. he does a lot of name calling and does a lot of partisanship

and digging back in past history and misstating the case, but he still hasn't answered the question, what is wrong with witnesses, what is wrong with documents. one argument, leader mcconnell, give us one argument why they shouldn't be part of the trial. we had asked for mr. duffey as a witness before the stunning, explosive new information was released about president trump's effort to freeze military aid to ukraine and the documents that he had sent. what happened over the weekend with the emails that were made public has only bolstered the case that documents should be produced and witnesses testify.

the white house press secretary said his memo met nothing. then release the documents surrounding it. now, new emails from top trump officials were released as you know, including one sent 91 minutes after president trump's july 25 phone call with the ukranian president in which president trump asked for a favor. in the email, the top trump administration official ordered the military assistance to ukraine be withheld and he demanded the order be kept hush-hush. why? if everything was on the up and up, if the call was perfect, why does one of his top aides, a political appointee, say let's keep it hush-hush? the new emails and the trump administration show why it is so important for the white house to produce the documents that we have requested.

they will shed light on who ordered the aid cut and why they ordered it. if there was ever an argument that we need mr. duffey and others to come testify under oath and the argument that we need documents related to what was revealed about mr. duffey's actions, this is it. we say to president trump, if you are so confident you did nothing wrong, why won't you let your men testify? if you did nothing wrong, mr. president, why do you seem so eager to avoid the truth, to hide the truth? and why, leader mcconnell, if you want the truth and want a fair trial, whether you are a partisan or not, are you withholding? so far, including today, leader

mcconnell has not come up with a single reason why we shouldn't have witnesses and documents. he does a lot of name calling and does a lot of finger pointing, but he hasn't given a single reason why there shouldn't be documents and witnesses. so we say to mr. president, we say to president trump, release the emails, let your aides testify. we say to leader mcconnell, a fair trial with the facts, only the facts. ready for your questions. >> senator mcconnell said he would, or he has not ruled out witnesses, but he wants to wait until congress is back in session. senator schumer: the witnesses and documents are the main argument here. we must decide them and hopefully we can decide them in a bipartisan way before going forward with the trial.

leader mcconnell has said let's go forward with the trial and then decided documents. nothing would prevent him from having the arguments made by each counsel where there is nothing new and then dismissing the case. we aren't going to stand for that. we, at the very minimum, will require votes from all the senators on each of the witnesses and about each of these sets of documents. and i don't think my colleagues, democrat or republican, are going to want to vote to withhold evidence in such an important trial. >> senator, two questions, why do you think president trump doesn't want to present witnesses and documents? the other thing, he said today, you're not impartial. senator schumer: the bottom line is, he can do all the name calling he wants. give an answer to why we shouldn't have witnesses and documents. and he hasn't given a good

answer, plain and simple. and until he does, he's not going to be able to escape the fact that he is probably and president trump is probably, not certainly, but seems to the average person, they are hiding the truth and afraid of the truth. >> why do you think the president doesn't want the testimony? senator schumer: he is afraid of the truth and hiding the truth. any other questions? thank you. >> follow the impeachment process on c-span or live, unfiltered coverage of the house, senate, and administration response. watch live coverage on c-span, ondemand at c-span.org/impeachment, and listen for free on the c-span radio app. c-span's "washington journal," live every day with news and policy issues that impact you.

tuesday morning, as part of authors week, reverend jim wallis will talk about his book. moore discusses the trump's economic record and the 2020 election. be sure to watch "washington journal" tuesday morning. during the discussion. and be sure to watch all this week starting at 8:00 a.m. >> we want to welcome back terry jeffrey. good monday morning and thank you for being with us. >> thank you. merry christmas. this from the wall street journal. party. it begins, congress has left town for the year, but alas, not before another bipartisan spending party that has