The House on Thursday asked Donald Trump to testify under oath next week as part of the former president’s second impeachment trial in the Senate.
In a letter to Trump, the House’s lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Trump’s testimony was necessary because his lawyers’ first official response to the impeachment charge “denied many factual allegations set forth in the article of impeachment.”
“You have thus attempted to put critical facts at issue notwithstanding the clear and overwhelming evidence of your constitutional offense,” Raskin wrote. “In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, concerning your conduct on January 6, 2021.”
The request from the House’s impeachment managers comes just five days before Trump is set to be put on trial on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, which left five people dead.
Raskin specifically asked that Trump testify sometime next week, between Monday and Thursday. The trial is slated to begin on Tuesday and is expected to last around one week.
Bruce Castor and David Schoen, Trump’s lawyers for the trial, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump is not likely to accept the House managers’ invitation. If he declines, Raskin wrote, “we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021.”