January 29, 2020

Trump’s Lawyers Threatened to Blow Up the Impeachment Trial. Watch Adam Schiff’s Response.

Senate Television/AP

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In the second week of the Senate’s impeachment trial, John Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser, has dominated much of the discourse—both in and out of the Senate chambers. The House impeachment managers, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), want to hear his testimony, especially in the wake of a bombshell New York Times report that Bolton wrote in a draft of his forthcoming book that Trump had linked military aid to Ukraine to his efforts to pressure that country to investigate the Bidens.

But Donald Trump’s lawyers and GOP senators are doing whatever they can to prevent Bolton from testifying, arguing that if he does testify, they will have to call Hunter Biden to appear. And Joe Biden. And the whistleblower. And even Schiff himself. In other words, Trump’s legal team is warning, the trial will stretch on seemingly forever. But in a striking moment on Wednesday night, Schiff blew that argument out of the water: 

Schiff made the case that demands for witness like the whistleblower, or even Trump himself, amount to “fantasy,” while a material witness like Bolton—who wants to testify—should be in the realm of reality. And Schiff suggested that Chief Justice John Roberts would likely agree with him. “We’re here to talk about people with pertinent and probative evidence,” Schiff said. “I trust the man behind me, sitting way up, who I can’t see right now. I trust him to make decisions whether a witness is material or not.” 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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