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Pelosi: House Moving to Send Impeachment to Senate Next Week

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the House will take
   steps next week to send articles of impeachment to the Senate for
   President Donald Trump's Senate trial.
   In a letter to her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said she has asked
   Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler to be prepared to bring to
   the floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit the
   articles of impeachment to the Senate.
   "I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus
   meeting on how we proceed further," Pelosi wrote.
   Pelosi has held on to the articles in a standoff with Senate Majority
   Leader Mitch McConnell.
   The protracted showdown has scrambled the politics of impeachment and
   the congressional calendar three weeks after the House Democrats
   impeached Trump on charges of abuse and obstruction over his actions
   toward Ukraine.
   Transmittal of the documents and naming of House impeachment managers
   are the next steps needed to start the Senate trial. Pelosi indicated
   she may be communicating to her colleagues, as she often does with a
   letter on her thinking.
   McConnell wants to launch a speedy trial without new witnesses but
   Pelosi is warning against a rush to acquit the president.
   Trump mocked Pelosi with his tweets Friday and derided her and other
   Democrats late Thursday in Toledo, his first rally of 2020.
   Pelosi, D-Calif., faces mounting pressure to act. Republicans say
   Democrats are embarrassed by their vote. But Pelosi countered that
   Democrats are "proud" of upholding the Constitution and said she
   doubted that Senate Republicans will do the same.
   Many on Capitol Hill expect the Senate impeachment trial to begin next
   week.
   "I'll send them over when I'm ready. That will probably be soon,"
   Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol Thursday, noting she is not
   postponing it "indefinitely."
   The House impeached Trump in December on the charge that he abused the
   power of his office by pressuring Ukraine's new leader to investigate
   Democrats, using as leverage $400 million in military assistance for
   the U.S. ally as it counters Russia at its border. Trump insists he did
   nothing wrong, but his defiance of the House Democrats' investigation
   led to an additional charge of obstruction of Congress.
   Pelosi's delay in sending the articles of impeachment over for a Senate
   trial has led to a standoff with Senate Majority Leader Mitch
   McConnell, R-Ky., over what would be the third impeachment trial in the
   nation's history.

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