The Senate still hasn’t received the House articles of impeachment against President Trump and is tentatively planning to begin the trial next week, on Jan. 21, after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
“It remains to be seen whether the speaker will deliver the articles this week,” Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said Monday.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, plans to call up a vote Tuesday naming impeachment “managers” who will at some point take the articles across the Capitol to the Senate.
This same group of House Democratic lawmakers, likely to be headed by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California, will, at some point, present senators the case for finding Trump guilty of two impeachment articles accusing him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Trump’s White House lawyers will get their own chance at the trial to argue in defense of the president. The trial is expected to take place every day of the week except Sunday beginning sometime around noon, unless lawmakers decide on another time.
Senators are not allowed to speak or use electronic devices. They are compelled to sit in the chamber and listen, at least until each side presents its case. At that point, senators can submit written questions.
House Democrats passed the articles on Dec. 19, but Pelosi has been holding on to them for nearly a month to try to force Senate Republicans to set a pretrial agreement on witnesses. Pelosi said Friday the transmision to the Senate would “probably be soon.”
The Senate is likely to vote on calling witnesses. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he plans to call up a vote on witnesses at the beginning of the trial and later on as well.
Democrats need 51 votes to summon a witness, but they control only 47 seats. Some Republicans, including Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, have said they are interested in hearing from witnesses.
Collins told the Washington Examiner she’s working with a group of GOP lawmakers to try to ensure witnesses can testify.
Democrats want to call former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
Trump’s GOP Senate allies say their witness wish list includes Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President and current presidential candidate Joe Biden. Hunter Biden took a lucrative gas company job while his father was vice president.
Schumer on Monday warned that McConnell will try to cut off the trial with a quick dismissal vote before the Senate can vote on witnesses.
“Leader McConnell has gone on the record and said that he wants the trial to span two weeks total,” Schumer said. “Are we to believe that Leader McConnell, after two weeks are up, really has an open mind about extending the trial several more weeks?”
