Date for beginning of Trump impeachment trial still uncertain

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she planned to transmit the House’s impeachment charge against former President Donald Trump to the Senate “soon,” but she again refused to pinpoint a precise date for doing so.

On their first full day of control in the capital, Democrats were trying to acclimate to their newfound power in the White House and on Capitol Hill, includ

ing figuring out how to approach the fraught trial, during the opening days of a new administration, of a former president accused of “incitement of insurrection.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-kentucky, is proposing to delay the start the trial until February, accord

ing to three Republican officials familiar with his views.

Mcconnell laid out his thinking in a conference call with other Senate Republicans on Thursday. The minority leader says he wants to do so to give lawyers for the former president, who was impeached by the House Jan. 13, time to prepare.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.