Biden Argued Against Need for Impeachment Trial Witnesses in 1999 Memo: Report

Twenty years ago, then-Senator Joe Biden argued against the necessity of impeachment witnesses at Senate impeachment trials in a memo he wrote during the President Bill Clinton impeachment saga.

According to a four-page document from January 1999 unearthed by Politico, Biden used several historical citations to make his case that the Senate need not depose or hear additional witnesses to hold a “full-blown” trial. His argument stands in stark contrast to House and Senate Democrats who have strongly argued in favor of admitting the testimony of new witnesses whose specific relevance to the charges against Trump came to light after the House voted for its articles of impeachment in December.

“The Senate may dismiss articles of impeachment without holding a full trial or taking new evidence. Put another way, the Constitution does not impose on the Senate the duty to hold a trial,” Biden argued in 1999. “In a number of previous impeachment trials, the Senate has reached the judgment that its constitutional role as a sole trier of impeachments does not require it to take new evidence or hear live witness testimony.”

Currently, Biden has forcefully rejected the prospect of participating in any Republican attempts to get him to testify in Trump’s Senate trial in exchange for the testimony of former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

“The reason why I would not make the deal — the bottom line is this is a constitutional issue. And we’re not going to turn it into a farce, into some kind of political theater,” Biden said last week.