House to deliver impeachment article to Senate
The House will transmit its article of impeachment charging former President Donald Trump with “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate on Monday, triggering the start of a trial unlike any in American history, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said Friday.
Schumer, the majority leader, said the decision had been relayed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but he declined to elaborate further on how the trial would run.
Once the article arrives, Senate rules say the chamber must almost immediately be transformed into a court of impeachment and sit in judgment until a verdict is reached.
Schumer and Sen. Mitch Mcconnell of Kentucky, his Republican counterpart, have been negotiating for days over further parameters for the trial in hopes of settling on bipartisan rules. Democrats are intent on trying to set up a dual track whereby the Senate could still confirm President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees before the trial starts each day to try to minimize the effect of the proceeding on his first days in office.
Pelosi’s decision to move Monday, a little less than two weeks after the House’s bipartisan impeachment vote, rebuffed a request Mcconnell made Thursday to delay the trial to provide Trump’s newly appointed legal team time to prepare. He had asked that the heart of the trial not begin until mid-february.
However, senators could still come to their own agreement to build in extra time for pretrial written briefs to delay the start of oral arguments in the Senate. Democrats involved in the planning indicated they were not entirely opposed to giving Trump’s team some time, out of fairness, and could use the lag to confirm more Biden nominees.
“I’ve been speaking to the Republican leader about the timing and duration of the trial,” Schumersaidfriday.“butmake no mistake a trial will be held in the United States Senate, and there will be a vote” to determine Trump’s political fate.
Mcconnell acknowledged Friday that his request had been turned down, at least in part. But he continued to argue Republicans would insist that the president’s team be given ample time.
“Senate Republicans strongly believe we need a full and fair process where the former president can mount a defense,” he said.
The imminent arrival of the article now gives the two leaders a deadline to agree to a set of trial rules to replace the default arrangement already codified in the Senate. It could also hasten along a stalled power-sharing agreement that will more broadly govern the Senate this term.