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House Will Vote Wednesday to Send Impeachment Articles, Pelosi Says House Will Vote Wednesday to Send Impeachment Articles, Pelosi Says
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The House will vote on Wednesday to send its impeachment charges against President Trump to the Senate, allowing a long-awaited trial to begin in the coming days, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday. WASHINGTON — The outlines of President Trump’s impeachment trial began to take shape on Tuesday, as the House announced a vote to send its impeachment charges to the Senate and leaders there cautioned that the tribunal would not begin in earnest until after the holiday weekend.
The proceeding will be only the third time an American president has been put on trial in the Senate. It is poised to begin almost a month to the day after the House voted to impeach Mr. Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents, and his stonewalling of Democrats’ inquiry into his actions. Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the first move, announcing Tuesday morning that after a monthlong delay, the House would vote on Wednesday to appoint the team of lawmakers, known as managers, to prosecute the case against Mr. Trump and transmit the articles to the Senate for trial.
“The American people deserve the truth, and the Constitution demands a trial,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement. “The House will now proceed with a vote on transmitting the articles of impeachment and naming impeachment managers on Wednesday, January 15.” “The American people deserve the truth, and the Constitution demands a trial,” she said. The speaker said she would announce the names of her managers at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The announcement came not long after Ms. Pelosi detailed her plan to Democratic lawmakers in a closed-door gathering on Tuesday morning. Before the vote, she said, she would appoint the team of lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors, or managers, in the case against Mr. Trump. She did not say whom she would choose. In the Senate, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, indicated that senators would be ready to receive the articles on Wednesday and take sworn oaths to render “impartial justice” in the trial shortly thereafter, if not the following day.
Democratic leaders in the House were working behind the scenes with Republican leaders in the Senate and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who will preside over the trial, to determine key questions of timing for the highly choreographed ritual of turning over the charges to the Senate. He said the Senate would put off considering the terms of the trial or the substance of the case until next Tuesday, allowing lawmakers time to vote late this week on a resolution to limit Mr. Trump’s war-making power against Iran and to approve Mr. Trump’s new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Senators also hope to travel home this holiday weekend because the trial requires them to remain at their desks in the Senate chamber six days a week.
Still uncertain is precisely when the House managers will ceremonially walk the articles of impeachment from the House chamber to the Senate. They will then formally present the articles and read them aloud in their entirety, prompting a trial to commence. “We hope to be able to achieve that by consent, which would set us up to begin the actual trial next Tuesday,” Mr. McConnell told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, told reporters that the House vote would take place in the afternoon on Wednesday, but the dramatic procession across the Capitol could be postponed until Thursday to not interfere with a ceremony previously scheduled for Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda. The announcements paved the way for an elaborate, choreographed exchange between the two chambers to unfold on Wednesday as they look toward the third presidential impeachment trial in American history. With little precedent to guide them, House and Senate leaders were working with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who will preside over the trial, to nail down the timing of what was to come.
At some point thereafter, either on Wednesday or Thursday, the chief justice will leave the Supreme Court and travel across the street to the Senate chamber to administer an oath to senators to do “impartial justice.” If all goes according to plan, the trial would begin almost a month to the day after the House voted to impeach Mr. Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, charges that stemmed from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents, then stonewall the House inquiry into his actions.
Senate Republican leaders have indicated that the trial is unlikely to begin in earnest until next week, to allow both the prosecution and the defense time to prepare their arguments. But first, the Senate is likely to wage a partisan fight over the structure of the trial, a fight in which Republicans and Democrats will clash over whether to call crucial White House witnesses and allow new documents into evidence. Mr. Trump blocked the House from gaining access to both during its impeachment inquiry. The White House, readying its own case, welcomed the forward progress and predicted Mr. Trump’s eventual acquittal.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, chastised the House for what he called a “half-baked” case and said it was not the job of the senators to fill out the factual record. He argued aggressively against the Senate calling new witnesses and evidence, as Democrats have demanded is necessary for a fair trial. “We’ve been ready for a long time,” Eric Ueland, Mr. Trump’s congressional liaison, told reporters in the Capitol after huddling with Senate Republicans over lunch. “We could have started the morning after the House vote in December. We’re good to go, and we’re ready to go, and we’d be shocked if the House isn’t ready to go either.”
“If the existing case is strong, there is no need for the judge and the jury to reopen the investigation,” he said. “If the existing case is weak, House Democrats should not have impeached in the first place.” Mr. Trump’s campaign was already capitalizing on what promises to be a brutally partisan proceeding, circulating a fund-raising appeal signed by the president that announced, “We’re taking this fight to the Senate,” and asked supporters to donate to an “Emergency 2020 Impeachment Defense Fund.”
From the White House, the president’s aides were sending a different message. Appearing on “Fox and Friends,” Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, said that the president and his team “don’t really care who comes forward, because the president’s done nothing wrong.” Behind the scenes, Mr. Trump’s team was bracing for a potentially damaging period, inviting conservative activists to the White House to plot strategy for the coming trial fight.
“I hate to talk about hypotheticals, but let’s be clear: The president is not afraid of a fight,” Mr. Gidley said. “And if you or anyone within the sound of our voices have been falsely accused of a crime, with no proof, and no evidence, for more than three years, you’d want every witness to come forward too, and say this man did nothing wrong.” Lawmakers were anxious, too, as they moved toward an unpredictable process that will test an already strained Senate, consuming lawmakers for weeks or longer. Debates raged in public and private over difficult questions that may darken the proceeding, including whether to call witnesses and compel new evidence or to consider a motion, endorsed by Mr. Trump but opposed by Republican leaders, to quickly dismiss the charges against him with no arguments or deliberations.
Behind the scenes, though, Mr. Trump’s team were bracing for a potentially damaging period, inviting conservative activists to the White House to plot strategy for the coming impeachment fight. Mr. McConnell used an extended Republican luncheon to brief lawmakers on protocols and procedures. He downplayed Mr. Trump’s apparent enthusiasm for a motion to dismiss, insisting it was not viable.
Ms. Pelosi blasted both Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump in her statement, accusing them of working together to cover up the facts the House had unearthed. “There is little to no sentiment in the Republican Conference for a motion to dismiss,” Mr. McConnell told reporters after the lunch. “Our members feel that we have an obligation to listen to the arguments.”
Mr. McConnell predicted that he still had the Republican votes to set rules for the trial next week that would put off a debate over calling witnesses until after opening arguments and senatorial questioning is complete.
“All 53 or us have reached an understanding very, very similar to the one that was achieved at the beginning of the Clinton impeachment trial,” Mr. McConnell said, referring to the 1999 trial of President Bill Clinton.
Democrats argue that a trial without witnesses and new evidence would be a sham. Mr. Trump blocked the House from gaining access to both during its impeachment inquiry.
“Do Senate Republicans want to break that lengthy historical precedent by conducting the first impeachment trial of a president in history with no witnesses?” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, asked on Tuesday.
In her statement, Ms. Pelosi accused Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump of working together to cover up the facts the House had unearthed.
“The American people will fully understand the Senate’s move to begin the trial without witnesses and documents as a pure political cover-up,” she said. “Leader McConnell and the president are afraid of more facts coming to light.”“The American people will fully understand the Senate’s move to begin the trial without witnesses and documents as a pure political cover-up,” she said. “Leader McConnell and the president are afraid of more facts coming to light.”
The team of managers is likely to be led by Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee who helmed the House’s Ukraine inquiry, but the speaker was keeping her selections extremely close. Still uncertain is precisely when the House managers will ceremonially walk the articles of impeachment from the House chamber to the Senate. When they do, they will formally present the articles and read them aloud in their entirety, beginning the trial.
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, told reporters that the House vote would take place in the afternoon on Wednesday, but the procession across the Capitol could be postponed until Thursday to avoid interfering with a ceremony previously scheduled for Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda.
After the procession, the chief justice will travel from the Supreme Court across the street to the Senate chamber to administer the oath to senators.
The team of managers is likely to be led by Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee who spearheaded the House’s Ukraine inquiry.
During the meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Schiff laid out his expectations for trial procedures, telling members that House managers would likely have 24 hours to present their case against Mr. Trump, spread over four six-hour days. The president's lawyers would be given the same amount of time.During the meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Schiff laid out his expectations for trial procedures, telling members that House managers would likely have 24 hours to present their case against Mr. Trump, spread over four six-hour days. The president's lawyers would be given the same amount of time.
Mr. Schiff’s presentation appeared to be based on the procedures from President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial in 1999. Mr. McConnell has said he plans to adopt similar procedures this time, but he has yet to release a detailed proposal, leaving the House in the dark about what is to come. Mr. Schiff’s presentation appeared to be based on the procedures from Mr. Clinton’s impeachment trial in 1999. Mr. McConnell has said he plans to adopt similar procedures this time, but he has yet to release a detailed proposal, leaving the House in the dark.
“None of us have been through it before,” said Representative Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont.“None of us have been through it before,” said Representative Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont.
Reporting was contributed by Maggie Haberman, Catie Edmondson, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Michael D. Shear.Reporting was contributed by Maggie Haberman, Catie Edmondson, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Michael D. Shear.