Trump impeachment trial to start next month
Former President Donald Trump’s second U.S. Senate impeachment trial will begin the week of Feb. 8.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will transmit the article of impeachment charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate at 7 p.m. Monday. Senators will be sworn in as jurors on Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will delay opening arguments until early February to give Trump’s legal team time to prepare and give the Senate leeway to deal with President Biden’s Cabinet nominees and another coronavirus relief bill.
“We all want to put this awful chapter in our nation’s history behind us,” Schumer said. “But healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability, and that is what this trial will provide.”
Schumer announced the timeline after reaching an agreement with Republicans led by Mitch McConnell who had proposed delaying the start of the trial until mid-February to allow Trump time to assemble his defense team.
Biden signaled support for a delay, saying Friday, “The more time we have to get up and running and meet these crises, the better.”
Schumer pledged “a fair trial” for Trump, who is the only president to be impeached twice, and will be the first to face trial after leaving office. House lawmakers voted in bipartisan fashion just more than a week go to impeach Trump for inciting the deadly U.S. Capitol siege.
Pelosi previously named nine House impeachment managers. Trump hired South Carolina elections lawyer Butch Bowers to defend him after other allies, including Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, passed.