Nancy Pelosi to send articles of impeachment to the Senate
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Friday that the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump the chamber passed late last year will be delivered to the Senate next week after a weekslong delay.
The articles center around Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, charging Trump of using the power of his office to further his political ambitions and block Congressional investigations.
Although the impeachment votes occurred on Dec. 18, making Trump the third president in American history to face such possible ouster from office, Pelosi said afterward that she would not send the articles to the Senate until she knew more about how the trial would be conducted in the Republican-controlled chamber.
She has urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to allow new witnesses to testify and new documentation to be introduced, and to make the rules of the trial public before it starts. But McConnell, a staunch Trump ally, has been dismissive of the impeachment charges and indicated he is prepared to short-circuit the trial.
Pelosi never planned on holding the articles indefinitely, she said at a Thursday press conference. She also defended her hold when asked whether it could potentially allow Trump to continue his Ukraine dealings, saying the House was acting “strategically.”
“We need to see the arena in which we are sending our managers. Is that too much to ask?” she said at that press conference, referring to the group of House members who will make the case for impeachment before the Senate. It is not yet known who will be selected.
She continued: “We are proud of our defense of the Constitution of the United States. We are concerned that the senators will not be able to live up to the oath they must take to hold an impartial trial.”
McConnell has said on national television there would be “total coordination” with the White House in the trial, disturbing even some in his own party for displaying explicit bias. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another staunch Trump ally, also drew criticism with public comments that he would not try to be a “fair juror” in the president’s trial.
Indications that Pelosi’s fellow Democrats were breaking with her resolve to hold off on sending the articles arose in recent days as Senate Democrats appeared eager to move the proceedings along.
To boot Trump from office, two-thirds of the Senate would need to vote in favor of doing so. Given GOP control of the chamber, its votes on the impeachment articles are widely expected to fall far short of the required total.
This is a developing story.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
