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US Lawmakers at Stalemate on Start of Trump Impeachment Trial

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - U.S. lawmakers have returned to Washington after their
   holiday recess, but they are no closer to deciding when and how
   President Donald Trump will be tried in the Senate on impeachment
   charges which were approved last month in the House of Representatives.

   Key lawmakers remain stalemated over impeachment, now complicated by
   congressional debate over the merits of Trump's approval of the drone
   attack that killed a key Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, last week
   outside the Baghdad airport.

   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democrat-controlled House, is
   refusing to send two articles of impeachment to the Senate until she
   believes it would conduct a fair trial. One article accuses Trump of
   abusing the power of his presidency to pressure Ukraine to launch an
   investigation into a key 2020 Democratic rival, former Vice President
   Joe Biden. The other is regarding obstruction of congressional efforts
   to investigate his Ukraine-related actions.

   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, leader of the
   Republican-majority Senate, says his chamber can't hold an impeachment
   trial without receiving the impeachment allegations from the House,
   although some Republican senators looking to acquit Trump as quickly as
   possible now say the Senate should start the trial anyway.

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