Trump impeachment trial to begin week of Feb. 8, Senate leaders announce
Nicholas Wu , Christal Hayes | USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial will start the week of Feb. 8, according to a deal announced Friday by Senate leaders.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to the timing of the deal after the House impeached Trump Jan. 13 for inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol a week earlier.
Earlier in the day, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the impeachment article would be sent to the Senate Monday, officially triggering the trial process.
Lawmakers had gone back and forth over the timing of the trial, with McConnell arguing the trial needed to be delayed until mid-February in order to give Trump time to prepare, and some Democrats saying a trial delay would give the Senate time to confirm President Joe Biden's Cabinet nominees.
McConnell spokesperson Doug Andres said the Kentucky Republican was "glad" Schumer agreed to their request to delay the trial. The additional weeks to prepare were "a win for due process and fairness," Andres said.
The article will be presented to the Senate on Monday, when the House impeachment managers, or the lawmakers assigned to present the case against Trump, will walk them over to the Senate. Senators will then be sworn in for a court of impeachment the following day. Trump and Democrats will have the next two weeks to file their initial arguments, with the trial beginning the week of Feb. 8.
The timing on when the House would transmit the impeachment article had been left in the air as the Senate changed from Republican to Democratic control and worked to quickly confirm several of Biden's Cabinet nominees. Schumer and McConnell have also continued to discuss a power-sharing agreement, since the chamber is split evenly, and the framework for how a trial will operate.
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"This impeachment began with an unprecedentedly fast and minimal process in the House," McConnell said Friday. "The sequel cannot be an insufficient Senate process that denies former President Trump his due process or damages the Senate or the presidency itself."
McConnell said Trump deserved a "full and fair process" for his impeachment trial.
Pelosi, in a statement, applauded the work of the nine House Democrats serving as impeachment managers and highlighted Congress' "solemn duty."
Pelosi downplayed GOP concerns that Trump did not have enough time to prepare for the trial, arguing "the former president will have had the same amount of time to prepare for trial as our Managers."
"We are respectful of the Senate’s constitutional power over the trial and always attentive to the fairness of the process," Pelosi said. "Our Managers are ready to begin to make their case to 100 Senate jurors through the trial process."
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