The leader of the House impeachment case said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s defense team is “deathly afraid” of possible testimony from key witnesses in a Senate trial.

“I think they’re deathly afraid of what witnesses will have to say and so their whole strategy has been deprive the public of a fair trial,” House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They don’t frame it that way, but that’s in essence it.”


Democrats have argued that officials with potential firsthand knowledge of Trump’s decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine should testify in the trial. Those possible witnesses include acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.