The US Senate will vote today on whether to end the impeachment trial of President Clinton or to prolong it by calling witnesses.
The Republican prosecutors have asked for three witnesses to be subpoenaed and have made a "request" for the appearance of President Clinton to testify at his trial. The White House has already said he will not testify.
President Clinton was in St Louis greeting Pope John Paul as the Senate was hearing the arguments for witnesses. As expected, the Pope made no reference to the impeachment proceedings.
The prosecutors or managers have also asked for new evidence to be introduced into the trial.
The question of witnesses and new evidence will become irrelevant if the first vote to be taken today at 6 p.m. Irish time is passed. This is the Democratic resolution to end the trial immediately without a verdict on the two articles of impeachment accusing Mr Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice.
But if the Republican majority as expected opposes this resolution, the 100 senators will then vote on the Republican prosecutors' request for three witnesses to be deposed (that is, to be questioned), the introduction of new evidence and the "request" for the appearance of the President.
The Democrats are strongly opposing the calling of witnesses but will be outvoted if the Republican majority holds firm.
There had been indications that enough Republicans could join with Democrats to vote down the resolution on witnesses, but last night the feeling on Capitol Hill was that witnesses would be called.
The three witnesses the prosecutors will call if allowed are: Ms Monica Lewinsky; Mr Vernon Jordan, who arranged for her to get a job in New York; and White House aide and former journalist, Mr Sidney Blumenthal. He has already testified that Mr Clinton denied to him that he had an affair with Ms Lewinsky and referred to her as stalking him.
Ms Lewinsky yesterday left Washington after being debriefed by three of the prosecutors at her hotel last Sunday. Her lawyer, Mr Plato Cacheris, said "her state of mind is she wants to get out of town and I endorse that. "She and I hope she will not have to testify. If she's needed, they issue a proper document to get her back, she will return."
Hopes that the impeachment trial could be ended this week began to fade on Capitol Hill as Republican senators rallied around the proposal to call a strictly limited number of witnesses. The senators had warned the prosecutors that they would not agree to more than three.
The vote today will be to agree to depose the three witnesses in the presence of lawyers. A separate vote would have to be taken to allow them to testify on the floor of the Senate.
The Senate minority leader, Senator Tom Daschle, said yesterday the trial would have to be prolonged indefinitely if witnesses were called. He said the White House lawyers would be entitled to examine the huge amount of material compiled by the Independent Prosecutor, Mr Ken Starr, which was not in his report and which the President's lawyers have not so far been allowed to see.
The White House would also be entitled to call witnesses, Mr Daschle pointed out.
The new evidence which the prosecutors want to introduce includes:
1. Records of phone calls between President Clinton and Ms Lewinsky including one lasting 56 minutes at a time she was expecting to be called to testify in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit;
2. An affidavit from a law clerk who has testified that the President was attentive at a key moment in his deposition in the Jones case. Mr Clinton has claimed that he was not paying attention;
3. An affidavit from another law clerk that the President's private secretary, Ms Betty Currie, had been subpoenaed in the Jones case when Mr Clinton went over his testimony with her. He has said that he did not know she was being called.