This farce of an impeachment trial is apparently nearing a conclusion, unless, of course former national security advisor John Bolton testifies and outs President Trump for holding up security aid to Ukraine in return for an investigation of the Bidens. The fateful quid pro quo.
Trump and his lawyers, along with Republican see-no-evil, hear-no-evil senators, have been in full resist mode for the last several days, doing everything they can to prevent that testimony.
They say the House didn't provide the proper authority for subpoenas when they launched its impeachment investigation and held its subsequent hearings, which led to the party-line vote to impeach Trump.
They say the evidence is overwhelming that Trump did nothing wrong, and in fact, has been a great friend of Ukraine because he ultimately provided the Javelin missiles that Ukraine sought, and his predecessor, Barack Obama, refused to sell to them.
And they say that even if Trump did try to cut such such a deal, in effect blackmailing Ukraine for his own political purposes, it's not an impeachable offense, so let's just go home. In fact, they argued that a politician trying to win reelection is acting in the national interest, so a quid pro quo to improve his chances cannot be impeachable.
And then, the National Security Council, a part of the administration, sent a letter to Bolton telling him that some of the material in his book manuscript, which is the impetus for his testimony, is classified and some is top secret.
So with all of these objections, including arcane constitutional arguments by the White House legal defense team, the question has to be asked: Why? What do they have to hide? What is Trump afraid of?
I'm certainly no lawyer, but I do know that if I was on trial and there was a witness who could nail me to the wall, I certainly would not want him to testify. However, if there was a witness who had evidence that could clear me, I certainly would leave no stone unturned to get him onto the witness stand.
So, what do you think? What are they afraid of?