Impeachment trial closer
Impeachment trial managers to be named
The U.S. House is set to vote today on a resolution to send the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for trial.
WASHINGTON – The House will vote Wednesday on a resolution to send the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for trial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democrats, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the trial is likely to begin Tuesday.
The Democratic Caucus meeting came after Pelosi said Friday she will send the articles to the Senate to decide whether to convict Trump and remove him from office. She also asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to prepare a resolution that would authorize and appoint the House lawmakers, called managers, who will prosecute the case during the Senate trial, although she didn’t name managers during the meeting.
“The House will now proceed with a vote on transmitting the articles of impeachment and naming impeachment managers on Wednesday,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. “The president and the senators will be held accountable.”
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the vote on the resolution will happen in the afternoon and take only 10 minutes, with each side given five minutes for debate. The precise timing hasn’t been set, he said.
The formal procession across the Capitol from the House to the Senate to deliver the articles could happen after the vote or occur Thursday morning,
Hoyer said.
McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate will likely take up “housekeeping” measures on the trial this week, possibly including swearing in senators and bringing over Chief Justice John Roberts to preside.
Pelosi has delayed sending the articles, after the House impeached Trump on Dec. 18, in order to learn more about how the trial would be conducted, such as whether witnesses would be called.
Lawmakers who are thought to be on Pelosi’s short list – members of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees – have declined to say if they’ve spoken about it with her.
Lawmakers leaving the meeting said they expect the managers to be deeply familiar with the details of the House case, to be knowledgeable about the law and to offer diversity in skills, background and race.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., who as vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee is one of the lawmakers who could be tapped, called it “the biggest guessing game on Capitol Hill,” one that she and others wish they could take bets on.
Senators of both parties have voiced frustration with the delay.
The articles accuse Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but the president has said he expects to be exonerated in the Senate trial. A two-thirds majority would be required to convict Trump and remove him from office, which is considered unlikely in a Senate where Republicans outnumber Democrats 53 to 47.