Pelosi’s impeachment team to face difficult fight in Senate
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped nine of her most trusted allies in the House to argue the case for President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
The Democrats, all of whom are lawyers and many of whom have experience investigating the president, face the arduous task of convincing skeptical Senate Republicans to convict Trump.
A single article of impeachment, for “incitement of insurrection, was approved by the House on Wednesday, one week after a violent mob of Trump supporters invaded the Capitol. At the time, lawmakers were counting the votes that cemented Trump’s election defeat.
The managers plan to argue at trial that Trump incited the riot, delaying the congressional certification of the electoral vote count by inciting an angry mob to harm members of Congress.
A look at Pelosi’s prosecution team in Trump’s historic second impeachment:
Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland
Pelosi appointed Raskin, a former constitutional law professor and prominent member of the House Judiciary Committee, as lead manager. In a week of dramatic events and stories, Raskin’s stands out: The day before the Capitol riots, Raskin buried his 25-year-old son, Tommy, after he killed himself on New Year’s Eve.
“You would be hard pressed to find a more beloved figure in the Congress” than Raskin, said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who was the lead manager during Trump’s first trial.
Rep. Diana Degette, Colorado
DeGette, who is serving her 13th term representing Denver, is a former civil rights attorney and one of Pelosi’s go-to allies.
Rep. David Cicilline, Rhode Island
Cicilline, the former mayor of Providence and a public defender, is in his sixth term in Congress and is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.
He was heavily involved in Trump’s first impeachment and was one of three original authors of the article that the House approved Wednesday.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, Texas
Castro is a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs panels, where he has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s handling of Russia. He was a litigator in private practice before he was elected to the Texas Legislature and later came to Congress, where he is in his fifth term.
Castro’s twin brother, Julián Castro, is a former San Antonio mayor and served as former President Barack Obama’s housing and urban development secretary.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, California
Swalwell also serves on the Intelligence and Judiciary panels and was deeply involved in congressional probes of Trump’s Russian ties. A former prosecutor, he briefly ran for president last year.
“The case that I think resonates the most with the American people and hopefully the Senate is that our American president incited our fellow citizens to attack our Capitol on a day where we were counting electoral votes, and that this was not a spontaneous call to action by the president at the rally,” Swalwell said.
Rep. Ted Lieu, California
Lieu, who authored the article of impeachment with Cicilline and Raskin, is on the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs panels.
“We cannot begin to heal the soul of this country without first delivering swift justice to all its enemies — foreign and domestic,” he said.
Del. Stacey Plaskett, U.S. Virgin Islands
Because she represents a U.S. territory, Plaskett does not have voting rights and was not able to cast a vote for impeachment.
“Donald J. Trump has been and continues to be a clear and present danger to our republic, to our Constitution and to the people of this nation,” she said in a statement.
Rep. Joe Neguse, Colorado
Neguse, in his second term, is a rising star in the Democratic caucus who was elected to Pelosi’s leadership team his freshman year in Congress. A former litigator, he sits on the House Judiciary Committee and consulted with Raskin, Cicilline and Lieu as they drafted the article the day of the attack.
Rep. Madeleine Dean, Pennsylvania
Like Neguse, Dean was first elected when Democrats recaptured the House in 2018.
She says she hopes the prosecutors can convince the Senate and the American people “to mark this moment” with a conviction.
“I think I bring to it just the simple fact that I’m a citizen, that I’m a mom and I’m a grandma,“Dean said. “And I want my children, my grandchildren, to remember what we did here.”