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Pelosi Alerts House to Be Ready to Send Impeachment Articles Next Week Pelosi Alerts House to Be Ready to Send Impeachment Articles Next Week
(about 7 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi alerted lawmakers on Friday that she would move next week to transmit articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate and prompt a historic trial over charges that the president abused his office and obstructed Congress. WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi alerted lawmakers on Friday that she would move next week to send to the Senate articles of impeachment against President Trump, making a long-awaited announcement that paved the way for the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.
In a letter to colleagues Friday morning, the speaker moved to end a weekslong impasse over the impeachment process that had left the president’s fate in limbo. She did not announce the members of the team she will ask to manage the case, but said the House should be ready to vote to appoint them sometime next week. In a letter to colleagues Friday morning, the speaker moved to end an impasse over the impeachment process that had left the president’s fate in limbo even as he navigated escalating hostilities with Iran in recent days. She did not announce which Democrats she would name to manage the case at trial, but said the House should be ready to vote to appoint them sometime next week and to formally deliver the Senate charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
“I have asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate,” Ms. Pelosi wrote after lawmakers departed the Capitol for the weekend. “I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus meeting on how we proceed further.”“I have asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate,” Ms. Pelosi wrote after lawmakers departed the Capitol for the weekend. “I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus meeting on how we proceed further.”
Once the House votes and the articles are transmitted, the Senate’s proceeding, only the third impeachment trial of a sitting president in American history, will begin promptly — as soon as Wednesday based on Ms. Pelosi’s timeline. The interlude instigated by Ms. Pelosi had grown increasingly perplexing, setting Washington on edge as an impeached president and his allies in Congress, as well as Democrats, wondered when — if ever — the proceeding to try him would get underway.
Her maneuver ultimately failed to yield any concessions from Republicans on the terms of the trial, and had become untenable. Some Democrats, including the senior senator from her home state, Dianne Feinstein, wondered aloud in recent days about the point of delaying the trial, before taking back her remarks.
Through it all, Ms. Pelosi insisted that she was merely pushing for a fairer Senate proceeding after Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, promised publicly to work hand in glove with Mr. Trump’s legal team to secure a quick acquittal. Democrats claimed the maneuver successfully spotlighted the need for the Senate to hear from witnesses and see documents that Mr. Trump barred from the House impeachment inquiry.
As recently as Thursday, Ms. Pelosi had told reporters that she would keep her own counsel on the matter, refusing say when she would act and demanding one final time that Mr. McConnell share the precise rules for a Senate trial so she could tailor her prosecutorial team. But Mr. McConnell never appeared to even consider committing to that approach, and he said this week that he had secured the votes he needs to begin a trial on his own terms, without an agreement on witnesses or documents.
Under the timetable the speaker suggested on Friday, the Senate’s proceeding would begin promptly — as soon as Wednesday.
While Mr. Trump’s acquittal appears all but certain in the Republican-led chamber, once underway, the trial could take on a life of its own, plunging Congress, the presidency and the 2020 presidential campaign into uncertainty for weeks. Democrats have made clear they intend to force votes on the question of calling witnesses, and are pressuring Senate Republicans — particularly moderates and those who face re-election challenges in politically competitive states — to join them in supporting the airing of more information.
“In an impeachment trial, every senator takes an oath to ‘do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws,’ Ms. Pelosi wrote. “Every senator now faces a choice: to be loyal to the president or the Constitution.”“In an impeachment trial, every senator takes an oath to ‘do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws,’ Ms. Pelosi wrote. “Every senator now faces a choice: to be loyal to the president or the Constitution.”
The Democratic-led House impeached Mr. Trump on Dec. 18 in a largely party-line vote charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in connection with a scheme to pressure Ukraine to publicly investigate his domestic political rivals. The proceeding could also scramble the political picture for Democrats, confining close to half of their presidential contenders to their wooden chairs in the Senate chamber in Washington for hours on end in the critical days leading to the Iowa caucus on Feb. 3, the first contest of the primary cycle.
Since then, the speaker has elected not to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate in an unusual attempt to pressure the Republican-led chamber to guarantee it would compel additional witnesses and documents Mr. Trump shielded during the House’s inquiry. A trial with no new evidence, Democrats have argued, would fundamentally abet that president’s cover-up. Though officials at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue have been preparing for weeks, Ms. Pelosi’s letter on Friday began an unofficial countdown toward opening arguments. Mr. Trump and his legal team were still sorting out who would mount his defense in the Senate chamber. And the speaker continued to assemble her own team of managers to prosecute him.
But Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said this week that he had secured the votes he needs to begin a trial on his own terms, without any commitment to Democrats to call witnesses or admitting new evidence. Mr. McConnell has repeatedly condemned the House’s case as rushed and woefully inadequate, without addressing the behavior it alleges by Mr. Trump, and has made clear he would like to bring about a speedy acquittal. The Democratic-led House impeached Mr. Trump on Dec. 18, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in connection with a scheme to pressure Ukraine to publicly investigate his domestic political rivals. Specifically, after months of investigation and public testimony, the House concluded that Mr. Trump withheld about $400 million in military assistance and a coveted White House meeting for Ukraine as leverage to extract investigations that could bolster his re-election campaign, and then sought to conceal it from Congress with an unprecedented campaign of obstruction.
For weeks now, Mr. McConnell “has been engaged in tactics of delay in presenting transparency, disregard for the American people’s interest for a fair trial and dismissal of the facts,” Ms. Pelosi wrote in her letter. But on the night of the vote, Ms. Pelosi unexpectedly announced she would not immediately send the articles of impeachment to the Senate in an attempt to pressure the Republican-led chamber to commit to calling additional witnesses and requesting documents Mr. Trump blocked during the House’s inquiry. A trial with no new evidence, Democrats have argued, would fundamentally abet the president’s cover-up.
In recent days, Ms. Pelosi found herself beating back questions about her strategy amid growing pressure from Republicans and some Democrats eager for the proceeding to move forward. But as recently as Thursday, she told reporters that she would keep her own counsel and refused to share details about when she would act beyond saying it would be “soon.” Though presidential impeachment precedent is scant — the House has only charged two past presidents, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson — Ms. Pelosi’s unforeseen move prompted debates about how much leeway the Constitution allows each chamber.
She had asked once more for Mr. McConnell to share the precise rules for a Senate trial so she could select her prosecutorial team. He declined, and the speaker decided on Friday to move ahead anyway without a concession. Mr. McConnell has repeatedly condemned the House’s case as rushed and woefully inadequate, without addressing the behavior of which Mr. Trump is accused.
Despite winning no commitment from Mr. McConnell, Democrats argue that the strategy did have payoffs. During the intervening three weeks between the House vote and Ms. Pelosi’s announcement, relevant new documents that Mr. Trump suppressed have come to light, suggesting that there is additional evidence to support the charges the House brought. And this week, a pivotal witness who declined to cooperate in the House impeachment inquiry, the former national security adviser John R. Bolton, said he would be willing to testify at the trial if senators subpoenaed him. For weeks now, Mr. McConnell “has been engaged in tactics of delay in presenting transparency, disregard for the American people’s interest for a fair trial and dismissal of the facts,” Ms. Pelosi charged in her letter.
Still, Ms. Pelosi had come under mounting pressure to move the case along. Republicans spent weeks accusing her of hypocrisy for waiting to prosecute Mr. Trump after months of insisting that he posed an urgent threat to the integrity of the 2020 election that must be addressed with a speedy impeachment vote. Democrats privately worried that argument could gain traction with the general public, undermining months of hard work in the House. Mr. McConnell’s response to the speaker’s news on Friday was terse. “About time,” he told reporters a short time later outside his Senate office.
Though presidential impeachment precedent is scant — the House has only charged two past presidents, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson — Ms. Pelosi’s move was unusual. His Democratic counterpart, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, said Friday the minority party “would do everything we can to see that the truth comes out.”
The House impeached Mr. Trump after months of investigation and testimony from officials in his own administration who described a scheme to pressure Ukraine to publicly investigate the president’s political rivals. The Democratic inquiry concluded that Mr. Trump withheld about $400 million in vital military aid for Ukraine and a White House meeting with its leader to try to exert leverage over Ukraine’s president to publicize the investigations, effectively asking a foreign power to help his 2020 re-election campaign. Mr. McConnell has yet to make public his precise proposed rules for the trial, but he said they would be modeled on a resolution guiding the 1999 trial of Mr. Clinton, the only modern precedent that senators adopted unanimously.
The pressure campaign resulted in a charge of abuse of power. The House also charged Mr. Trump with obstructing Congress, based on his blanket blockade against testimony by administration officials and refusal to turn over documents requested by the House impeachment investigators. To Democrats’ dismay, that model puts off any decisions on calling witnesses or new evidence until the middle of the trial, after senators are sworn in, the House and White House present opening arguments and senators have a chance to ask written questions. Nor does it guarantee that new evidence will be included.
Democrats are closely watching a small group of moderate Republican senators who are open to calling witnesses, hoping to court their support when the time comes. With the chamber divided 53 to 47, they need four Republicans to cross party lines if they want a shot at hearing from a cadre of officials like John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, who are said to have pertinent information about the president’s actions toward Ukraine but evaded House investigators.
Complicating matters, Mr. Trump told Fox News on Friday that he would probably invoke executive privilege to try to shield Mr. Bolton’s testimony if the Senate summoned him. Mr. Trump said he had no problem with what Mr. Bolton might say, but that “for the sake of the office” of the president, he did not want to set a standard of letting a top adviser speak about his interactions with the president.
Mr. Bolton indicated in a statement this week that he would testify if subpoenaed, setting up a potential legal clash.
Even if the trial were to begin Wednesday, it could take several days to be fully organized. Officials in both chambers suggested on Friday that the heat of the trial — beginning with up to 24 hours or oral arguments per side — could begin shortly after the Martin Luther King’s Birthday. If a majority of senators do vote to call witnesses, that could extend the proceeding by several weeks.
White House and House officials are considering all those factors as they hone their legal teams in the coming days.
Mr. Trump’s team is likely to be led by Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, who vigorously enforced the president’s stonewall of the House inquiry and refused to mount a defense in that chamber despite invitations to do so. He will probably be assisted by two White House deputies and Jay Sekulow, one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Some people close to Mr. Trump have also pushed to give public roles to three House Republicans — Doug Collins of Georgia, John Ratcliffe of Texas and Jim Jordan of Ohio — television-savvy conservatives who led the defense in the House. But Mr. McConnell and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, have counseled that senators could find it off-putting.
Ms. Pelosi’s team will almost certainly be led by Mr. Nadler and Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the Intelligence Committee chairman, who together oversaw the House’s impeachment inquiry in the fall. But the speaker is still trying to piece together a regionally and racially diverse team that will appeal to senators.
Despite winning no commitments from Mr. McConnell, Democrats argued that Ms. Pelosi’s delay strategy had payoffs.
During the intervening three weeks between the House vote and Ms. Pelosi’s announcement, relevant new documents that Mr. Trump suppressed have come to light, suggesting that there is additional evidence to support the charges the House brought.
Still, after months of controlling the narrative in the news media, Ms. Pelosi exposed herself to second-guessing. Republicans accused her of hypocrisy for waiting to prosecute Mr. Trump after months of insisting that he posed an urgent threat to the integrity of the 2020 election that must be addressed with a speedy impeachment vote. And Democrats privately worried that argument could gain traction with the general public, undermining hard work in the House.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting from New York.