The U.S. House of Representatives has sent two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate and approved House prosecutors for the third impeachment trial in American history.
The ceremonial pomp and protocol by lawmakers who will be
prosecuting the case against Trump moved the impeachment out of Speaker Nancy
Pelosi's Democratic-run House to the Republican-majority Senate, where the
president's team is mounting a defence aiming for swift acquittal.
"Today we will make history," Pelosi said as she
signed the documents, using multiple pens to hand out and mark the moment.
"This president will be held accountable."
House Democrats formally handed off the impeachment case
after walking the articles across the Capitol building.
The nearly party-line vote to move Trump's impeachment from
the Democratic-run House to the Republican-majority Senate passed by a tally of
228-193.
Procedural matters could begin as early as Thursday with the
swearing-in of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and the 100 senators,
though opening statements are not expected until next week.
Earlier, Pelosi named seven Democrats to present the case in
the landmark Senate trial. By rank, the House impeachment managers are:
Adam Schiff, California, House intelligence chair.
Jerrold Nadler, New York, House judiciary chair.
Zoe Lofgren, California.
Hakeem Jeffries, New York.
Val Demings, Florida.
Jason Crow, Colorado.
Sylvie Garcia, Texas.
The group includes a former federal prosecutor (Schiff),
police chief (Demings), municipal judge (Garcia) and private practice lawyers
(Crow and Jeffries). Career politicians Nadler and Lofgren have law degrees,
with the latter a Democratic aide during the Richard Nixon impeachment process
and a congresswoman during the Bill Clinton impeachment trial.
Schiff and Lofgren were also managers during the last
federal impeachment trial in 2010 that saw a Louisiana judge removed from the
federal bench.
"The emphasis is making the strongest possible case to
protect and defend our Constitution, to seek the truth for the American
people," said Pelosi.
Trump's hearing will be only the third presidential
impeachment trial in U.S. history, coming against the backdrop of a politically
divided nation and an election year.
He was impeached by the Democratic-led House on Dec. 18 on
charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress over pushing Ukraine to
investigate Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and a discredited
theory about a computer server. Nearly $400 million US in Pentagon-approved aid
was withheld from Ukraine, released weeks later once it emerged a whistleblower
complaint had been initiated regarding a July 25 phone call Trump conducted
with Ukraine's president.
The White House quickly released a statement disparaging the
latest step of what it has characterized as a partisan process.
"The Speaker lied when she claimed this was urgent and
vital to national security because when the articles passed, she held them for
an entire month in an egregious effort to garner political support," said
spokesperson Stephanie Grisham. "She failed, and the naming of these
managers does not change a single thing.
"President Trump has done nothing wrong. He looks
forward to having the due process rights in the Senate that Speaker Pelosi and
House Democrats denied to him, and expects to be fully exonerated."
A resolution passed by the House in October allowed the
president or his counsel to, among other things, respond to evidence, submit
requests for additional testimony and cross-examine witnesses at the
impeachment hearings, but the White House declined to participate.
Trump, during an event Wednesday at the White House to sign
a trade pact with China, rejected the charges as a "hoax."
New details of Trump's efforts on Ukraine emerged late
Tuesday, increasing pressure on senators to call witnesses in the trial, a step
that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has been reluctant to take.
House investigators announced they were turning over a
"trove" of new records of phone calls, text messages and other
information from Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Schiff seized on a letter in which Giuliani claimed he was
acting on behalf of the president, who had knowledge of his actions.
"That letter makes clear that Giuliani, in his own
words, is acting at the behest and with the knowledge and consent of the
president," said Schiff. "There is no fobbing this off on others. The
president was the architect of this scheme."
The Senate is expected to transform into an impeachment
court as early as Thursday, although significant proceedings wouldn't begin
until next Tuesday.
McConnell, who is negotiating rules for the trial
proceedings, said all 53 Republican senators are on board with his plan to
start the session and consider the issue of witnesses later.
Senate Republicans also signalled they would reject the idea
of simply voting to dismiss the articles of impeachment against Trump, as Trump
himself has suggested. McConnell agreed he does not have the votes to do that.
"There is little or no sentiment in the Republican
conference for a motion to dismiss," McConnell said Tuesday. "Our
members feel we have an obligation to listen to the arguments."
"If McConnell makes this the first trial in history
without witnesses, it will be exposed for what it is, and that is an effort to
cover up for the president," Schiff said on Wednesday.
Most Republicans appear willing to go along with McConnell's
plan to start the trial first then consider witnesses later, rather than
upfront, as Democrats want. But a growing number of senators say they want to
ensure the ground rules include the possibility of calling new witnesses.
Democrats have been pushing Republicans, who have a slim
Senate majority, to consider new testimony, arguing fresh information has
emerged during Pelosi's month-long delay in transmitting the charges.
Republicans control the chamber 53-47, and are all but
certain to acquit Trump. It takes just 51 votes during the impeachment trial to
approve rules or call witnesses. Just four Republican senators could form a
majority with Democrats to insist on new testimony. It also would take only 51
senators to vote to dismiss the charges against Trump.
McConnell prefers to model Trump's trial partly on the
process used for then-president Bill Clinton's trial in 1999. It, too,
contained motions for dismissal or calling new witnesses.
The Clinton impeachment trial lasted five weeks, which few
observers expect this time. Republicans then named 13 managers, all white
males, a number that at least one legislator said later was a mistake.
The Trump impeachment trial could conceivably burden
senators on the campaign trail for the Democratic nomination for president:
Michael Bennet of Colorado, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of
Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
The only other presidential impeachment trial in the Senate
involved President Andrew Johnson in the 19th century. Johnson was acquitted,
while Nixon resigned in 1974 before a planned House vote on articles of
impeachment.
Source: cbc
Source: cbc
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