When the impeachment proceedings against President Trump begin again next week, he won’t be the only one facing scrutiny, Rep. Jerry Nadler said.
“The Senate is on trial as well as the president,” Nadler said during a Wednesday press conference. “Does the Senate conduct a trial according to the Constitution to vindicate the Republic, or does the Senate participate in the president’s crimes by covering them up?”
Nadler was one of seven lawmakers named as impeachment managers for a Senate trial against Trump that is slated to begin next Tuesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to lead the group of Democratic prosecutors.
“The emphasis is on litigators and on making the strongest possible case to the American people,” the speaker said.
Nadler, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called into questioned the integrity of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has indicated the chamber’s majority will be in lockstep with the White House regarding Trump’s impeachment.
“If the Senate doesn’t permit the introduction of all relevant witnesses and all of the documents that the House wants to introduce, because the House is the prosecutor here, then the Senate is engaging in an unconstitutional and disgusting cover-up,” Nadler said.
Senate Democrats announced last month they wish to call key former and current White House aides to present new evidence against Trump that was not brought to light during proceedings in the House.
McConnell balked at the demand.
“They spent four weeks demonstrating through their actions that impeachment is actually not that urgent, and they don’t actually have much confidence in their case — an arbitrary four-week delay does not show urgency,” McConnell said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “And these demands that the Senate commit to reopening the House’s investigation do not show confidence.”
House Democrats passed two articles of impeachment against Trump late last year for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress following Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“There is an overwhelming case beyond any reasonable doubt that the president betrayed the country by using by withholding federal funds appropriated by Congress, breaking the law in doing so, in order to extort a foreign government into intervening in our election to embarrass or to try to embarrass a potential opponent of his,” Nadler said. “This is a test of the Constitution.”
