[ad_1]
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is proposing to postpone the start of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial until February to give the former president time to prepare and consider his case.
House Democrats who voted to impeach Trump last week for inciting the deadly Jan.6 riot on Capitol Hill signaled that they wanted to go to trial quickly as President Joe Biden began his term, saying a full balance sheet was needed before the country – and Congress – could pass.
But McConnell in a statement Thursday night suggested a longer timeline that would see the House forward the impeachment article next week, Jan. 28, to kick off the first phase of the trial. After that, the Senate would give the President’s defense team and House prosecutors two weeks to file briefs. Arguments in the trial would likely begin in mid-February.
“Senate Republicans are firmly united behind the principle that the institution of the Senate, the office of the President and former President Trump himself all deserve a full and fair process that respects his rights and serious factual issues,” legal and constitutional issues at stake. ”Particularly given the unprecedented speed of the House process, McConnell said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., is reviewing the plan and will discuss it with McConnell, a spokesperson said. The two leaders are also negotiating how the new 50-50 Senate will work and how they will balance other priorities.
A trial delay might appeal to some Democrats, as it would give the Senate more time to confirm Biden’s Cabinet nominees and debate a new round of coronavirus relief. Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a key ally of the president, told CNN that Democrats would consider a postponement “if we move forward in confirming the very talented, seasoned and diverse team that President Joe Biden has appointed.
Ultimate power over timing rests with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who can trigger the trial at any time by returning the charge of inciting an insurgency to the Senate. The California Democrat has yet to say when she will.
“It will be soon. I don’t think it will be long, but we have to do it,” Pelosi said Thursday. She said Trump did not deserve a “release card” just because he left his prison. functions and which Biden and others called for national unity.
Facing his second impeachment trial in two years, Trump began to rally his defense team by hiring lawyer Butch Bowers to represent him, according to an adviser. Bowers previously served as an attorney with former South Carolina governments. Nikki Haley and Mark Sanford.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina helped Trump find Bowers after members of his former legal teams indicated they did not plan to join the new effort. Trump is at a disadvantage compared to his first trial, in which he had all the resources of the White House board office to defend him.
Pelosi’s nine impeachers, who will pursue the case in the House, have met regularly to discuss the strategy. Pelosi said she would talk to them “in the next few days” about when the Senate may be ready for trial.
Shortly before the January 6 insurgency, Trump told thousands of his supporters at a rally near the White House to “fight like hell” against the election results that Congress certified. A crowd marched to the Capitol and rushed inside, interrupting the count. Five people, including a Capitol Hill police officer, died in the chaos, and the House impeached Trump a week later, with 10 Republicans joining all Democrats in backing him.
Pelosi said it would be “detrimental to unity” to forget that “people died here on January 6, in an attempt to undermine our elections, to undermine our democracy, to dishonor our Constitution.”
Trump was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate in his first impeachment trial. The White House legal team, aided by Trump’s personal lawyers, aggressively fought House accusations that he had encouraged the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden in return for military aid. This time around, Pelosi noted, the House is not seeking to condemn the president for private conversations, but for a very public insurgency that she herself experienced and that took place on live television.
“This year the whole world has witnessed the president’s incitement,” Pelosi said.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the second Senate Democrat, said it was still too early to know how long a trial would take or whether Democrats would want to call witnesses. But he said, “You don’t need to tell us what was going on with the crowd scene where we were rushing up the stairs to escape.”
McConnell, who said this week that Trump “provoked” his supporters before the riot, did not say how he would vote. He told his GOP colleagues it would be a vote of conscience.
Democrats would need the support of at least 17 Republicans to condemn Trump, a bar high. While a handful of Senate Republicans have indicated they are open to sentencing, most said they believe a trial will be divisive and questioned the legality of trying a president after he leaves. .
Graham said if he was Trump’s lawyer he would focus on that argument and the merits of the case – and whether it was an “incitement” under the law.
“I guess the public record is your TV screen,” Graham said. “So I don’t see why it would take a long time.”
___
Associated Press editors Meg Kinnard in Columbia, SC, and Jill Colvin in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link