Note-passing and power: Moderates team up at Trump trial Published on January 31, 2020 at 05:28AM by By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican seatmates Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski on Thursday passed a piece of paper back and forth, nodded — and then sent the note on an unusual journey across the Senate aisle, into the hands of Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Two hours later, Sinema posed the trial's first bipartisan question. On behalf of the power pocket of moderates, she asked: Will President Donald Trump assure the American public that private citizens won't conduct foreign policy unless the State Department requests it? The query referred to the president's private lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pressuring Ukraine to give Trump political help. But by asking it together — with Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia — the impeachment trial wildcards showed off their combined, potential influence over the deeply polarized Senate in only th