Senate Chamber Erupts In Laughter As Trump’s Lawyer Throws A Tantrum Over Calling Witnesses

Last updated on February 14th, 2021 at 03:04 pm

One of Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyers, Michael van der Veen, blew a gasket on Saturday morning after the Senate chamber erupted in laugher over his tantrum about calling witnesses.

The lawyer said that if the impeachment managers want to start subpoenaing individuals related to the events of Jan. 6, then he wants to depose House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris at his office in Philadelphia.

Those on the Senate floor immediately responded in laugher, which only made van der Veen even more angry.

“I haven’t laughed at any of you, and there’s nothing laughable here,” he whined, before threatening to “slap subpoenas on a good number of people” if witnesses are called.

Video:

van der Veen said:

For the House managers to say we need depositions about things that happened after, it’s just not true. But, but if he does, there are a lot of depositions that need to be happening. Nancy Pelosi’s deposition needs to be taken. Vice President Harris’ deposition absolutely needs to be taken. And not by Zoom. None of these depositions should be done by zoom. We didn’t do this hearing by Zoom. These depositions should be done in person in my office in Philadelphia. That’s where they should be done. [ Laughter] … I don’t know how many civil lawyers are here, but that’s the way it works, folks. When you want somebody’s deposition, you send a notice of deposition, and they appear at the place where the notice says. That’s civil process. I don’t know why you’re laughing. It is civil process. That is the way lawyers do it. We send notices of deposition. … I haven’t laughed at any of you, and there’s nothing laughable here. He mentioned my client coming in to testify. That is not the way it’s done. If he wanted to talk to Donald Trump, he should have put a subpoena down like I’m going to slap subpoenas on a good number of people, if witnesses are what is required here for them to try to get their case back in order, which has failed miserably for four reasons. There is no jurisdiction here. There has been no due process here. They have completely violated and ignored and stepped on the Constitution of the United States.

van der Veen’s outburst came just before the Senate voted to call witnesses in the impeachment trial.

This is what it sounds like when you don’t want to call witnesses

The huffing and puffing by Trump’s defense team on Saturday is a pretty good indication that they don’t want to call in witnesses.

What Trump’s lawyers wanted was for the trial to wrap up before any further damage is done to their case.

Witnesses will only bolster the impeachment managers’ already-damning argument against Donald Trump, which is why the former president’s defense team wants nothing to do with it.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.

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