On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) stated that in the Senate’s impeachment trial, “the president’s lawyers deserve to pull in whoever they feel contributes to their case,” and that senators “should not be determining who is relevant to the case.”

Merkley said the Senate trial “is really a situation where the president’s lawyers deserve to pull in whoever they feel contributes to their case, and the House managers in presenting their case need to be able to pull in and have a subpoena for the witnesses and for the documents. That’s what a trial is, full fairness to present the case on both sides.”

He added, “My belief is that the jurors, the hundred of us, should not be determining who is relevant to the case. And, quite frankly, I think that if either side tries to turn this into a circus, pulling in people who are clearly not relevant, or continuing the persecution of a political opponent, it would do great harm to that side. So, I would say that, in this case, the right of the defense to choose who they think is relevant and present that information is something no one else should be able to interfere with.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett