Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Murkowski wants to hear case before deciding on witnesses

She said she wants to make sure there’s a process that allows senators to “really hear the case.”

  • By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
  • Saturday, January 18, 2020 10:18pm
  • News

JUNEAU — Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she’s comfortable waiting to decide if more information is needed as part of the Senate’s impeachment trial until after hearing arguments from House managers and attorneys for President Donald Trump and questions from members.

The Republican said Saturday she wants to make sure there’s a process that allows senators to “really hear the case” and ask questions “before we make that determination as to, what more do we need. I don’t know what more we need until I’ve been given the base case.”

Murkowski spoke to reporters from Anchorage ahead of Senate impeachment trial proceedings expected to begin Tuesday.

If Democrats try to add certain witnesses to an organizing resolution, Murkowski said she expects Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would move to table such a request and that she would support a tabling motion.

“Because what I’ve worked hard to do is make sure that we have a process that will allow for that determination” — whether witnesses or documents are needed, she said. “But I want to have that at a point where I know whether or not I’m going to need it.”

She said there are political pressures “on all of us” but said her responsibility is “not to focus on the politics of where we are but a recognition that we are in the midst of an infrequent and in many ways extraordinary process that the Constitution allows for, and I’m going to take my constitutional obligations very, very seriously.”

Regardless of how one views the House’s handling of the impeachment process, the matter is now before the Senate, she said, adding later she does not want the proceedings to become a “circus.”

Trump was impeached by the House on charges he abused his power by pushing Ukraine to investigate his Democratic political rival Joe Biden and that he obstructed Congress by blocking witnesses and testimony in the House investigation. Trump has said he did nothing wrong.

Murkowski said a recent Government Accountability Office report that concluded the White House violated federal law by withholding congressionally approved security aid to Ukraine reminded her of last year’s debate over Trump’s declaration of a border emergency that he invoked to spend more for border barriers than Congress had approved.

During that debate, she said she maintained the president could not take funds congressionally directed to one area and use them to advance his own policies. “Whether it was for the wall or for any other thing, I have been one that has said, ‘Congress has a very specific role when it comes to appropriation of funding and that needs to be respected,’ ” she said.

She said she viewed the GAO report with a “little bit of concern,” in part because of the need to respect Congress’ appropriation powers.

More in News

A map of 2025 construction projects scheduled for the Kenai Peninsula. (Provided by Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities)
Department of Transportation announces construction plans

Most of the projects include work to various major highways.

Seward City Hall is seen under cloudy skies in Seward, Alaska, on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Seward adds full-time staffer for recently restarted teen rec room

Seward’s Parks and Recreation Department reclaimed responsibility for teen programming at the start of this year.

Gavin Ley stands with the “Go-Shopping Kart” he designed and built in his career and technical education courses at Nikiski Middle/High School in Nikiski, Alaska, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Nikiski students learn professional skills through technical education

Career and technical education gives students opportunity to learn skills, express themselves creatively, work cooperatively and make decisions.

Nikiski teachers, students and parents applaud Nikiski Middle/High Principal Mike Crain as he’s recognized as the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals 2025 Region III Principal of the Year by the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education during their meeting in Soldotna, Alaska, on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Nikiski principal named Region III principal of the year

Crain has served as Nikiski’s principal for three years.

An 86 pound Kenai River king salmon is measured in Soldotna, Alaska, on June 29, 1995. (M. Scott Moon/Peninsula Clarion File)
Kenai River king salmon fishing closed entirely for 3rd year

Kenai River king salmon were designated a stock of management concern in 2023.

The Kenai Peninsula College Main Entrance on Aug. 18, 2022, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
University of Alaska Board of Regents to meet in Soldotna

The last time the board met on the Kenai Peninsula was April 2012.

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education member Penny Vadla and student representative Emerson Kapp speak to the joint Alaska House and Senate education committees in Juneau, Alaska, on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Screenshot courtesy Gavel Alaska/KTOO)
KPBSD among dozens of districts to deliver in-person testimony to Alaska Legislature

Districts spotlighted programs already lost over years of stagnant funding that hasn’t met inflationary pressure.

Rep. Bill Elam, R-Nikiski, speaks during a town hall meeting hosted by his office at the Nikiski Community Recreation Center in Nikiski, Alaska, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Education dominates Elam’s 1st town hall as state rep

Education funding dominated much of the conversation.

Kenai Middle School Principal Vaughn Dosko points out elements of a redesign plan for the front of the school on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Work soon to begin on Kenai Middle security upgrades

The security upgrades are among several key KPBSD maintenance projects included in a bond approved by borough voters in October 2022.

Most Read