What’s going on with the Trump impeachment?
Donald Trump’s impeachment trial continues in Congress, with the Senate Judiciary Committee continuing to push back on his impeachment.
The Senate Judiciary committee on Thursday gave the president six more weeks to respond to the committee’s subpoenas.
It’s the first time the committee has delayed action on the charges against Mr Trump for more than a year.
But the committee said it was delaying a decision on whether Mr Trump should be removed from office until Mr Trump’s responses to the subpoenas were made public.
“The committee continues to hold out hope that the President will respond to our subpoenas in a timely manner, and we continue to believe that his responses to our questions are consistent with the constitutional process,” the committee chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley, told reporters.
“While the committee continues its work, the President has the constitutional right to respond in a manner consistent with our process.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who chairs the committee, said on Thursday that Mr Trump “will continue to respond on his own terms and not to the Senate’s.”
“The Senate is not interested in an investigation of the President of the United States, so we’re not going to make a determination on whether he should be impeached,” he said.
“We will make the determination on what he does and whether he has committed the crimes.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, also welcomed the Senate to move forward with the investigation, but said it had not been fully explained why the subpoena was being served.
“I think this is an opportunity to move the needle, to get at the truth of what happened and to have a process to deal with that truth,” he told reporters at the Capitol.
“As far as I’m concerned, this is the last opportunity to have this process and to get a real answer to the question of whether he committed the impeachment charges.”
Republican Senate leaders have said they will not hold a vote on Mr Trump if he does not respond to their subpoenas by April 30.
Mr Trump has already said he will not defend himself, instead blaming Democrats and the media.
The Republican president has dismissed any suggestion that he was the target of the probe, saying he would defend himself in court.
“There’s nothing there,” Mr Trump said.
“They don’t want to talk to me because they know that I’m going to be exonerated.”ABC/wiresTopics:law-crime-and-justice,united-states