President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is underway, and one factor is still in question. Will the trial include witness testimony?
In the Senate, which holds impeachment trials after the House of Representatives approves charges, Republicans have been adamant that witnesses are unnecessary.
On Tuesday, when the rules for the trial were put in place, the Senate voted against multiple measures that would have allowed for witnesses to be subpoenaed. The trial could still include testimony, because the Senate will vote again on the matter after House members and Trump’s attorneys finish laying out their cases.
We examined the number of witnesses who appeared at each of the impeachment trials held in recent history to determine how common it is to have no one testify. Here’s what we found.
Out of the five impeachment trials held since 1986, all of them included witness testimony.
Since 1986, four U.S. judges and one president, Bill Clinton, were tried on impeachment charges. The Senate heard witness testimony during each of those trials.
How many witnesses testified during those impeachment trials?
The numbers varied, but most of the trials – all but one – included testimony from at least 10 witnesses. The trial for Alcee L. Hastings, who was removed from his position as district judge for the Southern District of Florida in 1989, included testimony from a whopping 55 witnesses. Hastings now is a member of the House, where he has served since 2013.
The trial with the fewest witnesses was Clinton’s, which faced a partisan dynamic similar to what we’re seeing today. During that trial, Democrats argued against calling witnesses.
In the end, just three witnesses testified during Clinton’s trial.
What about during other presidents’ trials?
Aside from Trump and Clinton, only one other sitting president faced an impeachment trial, Andrew Johnson in 1868. Both Clinton and Johnson were acquitted.
Johnson’s trial included testimony from 41 witnesses – 25 for the prosecution and 16 to support Johnson’s defense.
So, what’s the bottom line? Is it normal for an impeachment trial to have no witnesses?
Based on the numbers we looked at, it’s not just unusual for witnesses to be excluded from impeachment trials; it hasn’t happened since at least 1986.
It’s harder to say what would be an average number of witnesses when a president is on trial, because we just have two others to compare to Trump’s. But both Johnson and Clinton’s trials included witness testimony, and in Johnson’s case, a lot of it. If anything, the number of witnesses at Clinton’s trial – just three – appears to be an abnormally low number compared to the other cases we reviewed.
The number of witnesses who testified during the impeachment trials we reviewed:
- Andrew Johnson, president, 1868: 41 witnesses
- Harry Claiborne, U.S. district judge, 1986: 19 witnesses
- Alcee L. Hastings, U.S. district judge, 1989: 55 witnesses
- Walter L. Nixon, U.S. district judge: 10 witnesses
- Bill Clinton, president: Three witnesses
- G. Thomas Porteous Jr., U.S. district judge: 26 witnesses
Contact Big If True editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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