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President Donald Trump's impeachment trial is shifting to questions from senators, a pivotal juncture as Republicans lack the votes to block witnesses and face a potential setback in their hope of ending the trial with a quick acquittal.

After Mr. Trump's defense team rested Tuesday with a plea to "end now," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately told senators he doesn't yet have the votes to brush back Democratic demands for witnesses now that revelations from John Bolton, the former national security adviser, have roiled the trial.

Mr.聽Bolton writes in a forthcoming book that Mr.聽Trump told him he wanted to聽withhold military aid聽from Ukraine until it helped with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden. That assertion, if true, would undercut a key defense argument and go to the heart of one of the聽two articles of impeachment聽against the president.

"I think Bolton probably has something to offer us," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

Mr.聽Trump disagreed in a tweet Wednesday in which he complained that Mr.聽Bolton, after he was fired, "goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security."

The president had tweeted shortly after midnight about his former adviser, asking why Mr.聽Bolton didn't complain "about this 鈥榥onsense鈥� a long time ago, when he was very publicly terminated."聽Mr.聽Bolton left the White House last September and says he offered his resignation.

The uncertainty about witnesses arises days before crucial votes on the issue. In a Senate split 53-47 in favor of Republicans, at least four GOP senators must join all Democrats to reach the 51 votes required to call witnesses, decide whom to call, or do nearly anything else in the trial. Several Republicans apparently are ready to join Democrats in calling witnesses.

The two days set aside for questions, Wednesday and Thursday, also allow each side more time to win over any undecided senators pondering the witness issue. In the meantime, all will have the opportunity to grill both聽the House Democrats prosecuting the case聽and聽the Republican president's defense team.

Held to submitting written questions to be read by Chief Justice John Roberts, senators are expected to dig into the big themes of the trial 鈥� among them whether what聽Mr.聽Trump did or may have done rises to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" 鈥� as well as pointed and partisan attacks on each side's case.

Mr.聽Trump faces charges聽from Democrats that he abused his power like no other president, jeopardizing U.S.-Ukraine relations by using the military aid as leverage while the vulnerable ally battled Russia. Democrats say Mr.聽Trump then obstructed their probe in a way that threatens the nation's three-branch system of checks and balances.

The president's legal team tried to lock up its case Tuesday and convince GOP senators that the president was right to ask Ukraine for investigations of Mr.聽Biden and his son Hunter and was well within his power to block the aid. They said he was not bound to abide by the congressional investigation.

Mr.聽Trump complained anew at a Tuesday night rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, charging that "congressional Democrats are obsessed with demented hoaxes, crazy witch hunts, and deranged partisan crusades."

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow addressed the Bolton controversy head-on in closing arguments by dismissing the former national security adviser's manuscript as "inadmissible." Attorney Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard scholar, said earlier that even if Mr.聽Bolton's story is true the actions don't rise to an impeachable offense.

Senate Republicans spent considerable time in private discussing how to deal with Mr.聽Bolton's manuscript without extending the proceedings or jeopardizing the president鈥檚 expected acquittal. That effort lost steam as Democrats showed no interest, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying, "We're not bargaining with them."

GOP senators were warned that if they agree to call Mr.聽Bolton or try to access his manuscript, the White House will block him, likely sparking a weekslong court battle over executive privilege and national security.

Nonetheless, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine appeared to be backed by others in the move to seek more testimony.

Some Republicans including Sen. Pat Toomey want reciprocity 鈥� bringing in Mr.聽Bolton or another Democratic witness in exchange for one from the GOP side. Some Republicans want to hear from Mr.聽Biden and his son, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company when his father was vice president.

Those swaps, though, seem likely to fail as most Republican senators don't want to call Mr.聽Bolton and most Democrats would rather avoid dragging the Bidens further into the impeachment proceedings. The Bidens were a focus of defense arguments though no evidence of wrongdoing has emerged.

"I don't know that the manuscript would make any difference in the outcome of the trial," said Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of GOP leadership. And some Republicans said they simply don鈥檛 trust Mr.聽Bolton鈥檚 word. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky called Mr.聽Bolton "disgruntled" and seeking to make money off his time at the White house.

But John Kelly, Mr.聽Trump's former White House chief of staff, told an audience in Sarasota, Florida, that he believes Mr.聽Bolton.

White House officials privately acknowledge that they are essentially powerless to block the book's publication but could sue after the fact if they believe it violated the confidentiality agreement Mr.聽Bolton signed.

Mr.聽Trump and his lawyers have argued repeatedly that Democrats are using impeachment to try to undo the results of the last presidential election and drive Mr.聽Trump from office.

"What they are asking you [to] do is to throw out a successful president on the eve of an election," said White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

Democrats, meanwhile, say Mr.聽Trump's refusal to allow administration officials to testify only reinforces that the White House is hiding evidence. The White House has had Mr.聽Bolton's manuscript for about a month, according to a letter from Mr.聽Bolton's attorney.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writers Alan Fram, Mary Clare Jalonick, Andrew Taylor, Matthew Daly, Laurie Kellman, and Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.