WASHINGTON DC—“Today, we will make history,” House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, before using what appeared to be more than a dozen different pens to put her signature on the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump in an elaborate ceremony in the U.S. Capitol building. Then, the seven impeachment managers, accompanied by the clerk and sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives, carried the two blue file folders containing the articles through the Old Hall of the House and across the Capitol rotunda, finally physically delivering them to the Senate chamber. “The message will be received,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, presiding at the time, said. And with that bit of ceremony, the responsibility for the proceedings against Trump passed to the Senate, which will conduct a trial to determine whether he can remain in office and seek a second term. It was 5:39 p.m. on Jan. 15, 2020, if you’re inclined to mark the time for the purposes of history. Pelosi was clearly in the mood to do so, as she finally let go of control of this process. At a press conference earlier in the day, she cited poets and statesmen from Longfellow to Lincoln who had noted the particulars of time as the signposts of history, placing this presidential discipline in a timeline that included the Civil War and the American Revolution. “On Dec. 18th, the House of Representatives impeached the president of the United States,” she said. “An impeachment that will last forever.” Pelosi named the seven managers appointed by the House to present the case in the Senate, who were confirmed in a brief vote on the House floor in the early afternoon. They’ll be led by committee chairs Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, who have led the impeachment investigations in the House, and who stood immediately on either side of Pelosi as she spoke. They will serve, essentially, as the prosecution in the trial, and she said they had been chosen in part for their skill and comfort in a courtroom experience. What exactly they’ll get to do is still up in the air — how much will this trial resemble a trial? Will there be witnesses to question? Will new information and evidence not contained in the indictment be sought, or even allowed? Sen. Mitch McConnell, who leads the Republican majority that controls the Senate, and therefore the rules of the trial which will be set over the next few days, has long been emphatic that he opposes hearing from witnesses, and would prefer to wave off the charges and clear the president as quickly as possible. But as of Wednesday morning, four Republican senators had said they’d either like to hear from witnesses such as former National Security adviser John Bolton, or that they are open to it. If they were to vote with the Democrats, that would be enough to force the issue. In the meantime, things continue to evolve: in the 24 hours before the procession put the case in McConnell’s care, the House Intelligence Committee made new evidence public in the form of texts and documents submitted by an indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Some of it appears to show disturbing — possibly menacing — surveillance of American ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, before she was fired by Trump. This is the kind of new revelation Pelosi hinted at as the advantage of having waited weeks since Trump was impeached to deliver the articles to the Senate. It is now up to senators, she and Nadler said, to pursue these pieces of information in trying the case, or be accused of participating in a coverup Republicans were more dismissive Wednesday. Trump’s press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement, “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. She failed and the naming of these managers does not change a single thing. President Trump has done nothing wrong.” McConnell, in a speech on the Senate floor, said the impeachment puts the nation on a “dangerous road” where any future president might be impeached simply because the house “doesn’t like that person.” The next few days, beginning Thursday at noon, are expected to be taken up by procedural elements in the Senate to prepare for the trial, which is expected to formally begin on Tuesday. The Senate will work on it six days a week until its conclusion. The White House said Wednesday it hopes the trial would last no longer than two weeks, but many expect it will last as many as five weeks. That schedule means it will collide with a busy political calendar that includes the State of the Union Address, scheduled for Feb. 4, and the Iowa caucuses that kick off the presidential election primary season on Feb. 3. Four Democratic senators are running for president and participating in the Iowa caucuses, and will be held away from actively campaigning there by their obligations as jurors. Trump, who was announcing phase one of a new trade deal with China as the House held its vote, greeted the news with a tweet saying this was “another con job by the Do Nothing Democrats.” Edward Keenan is the Star’s Washington Bureau chief. He covers U.S. politics and current affairs. Reach him via email: [email protected] |