House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wanted to see Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s trial plan before sending the impeachment articles to the Senate. It is now more than three weeks since the House impeached Mr Trump on charges of abuse and obstruction and House Democrats have been pressing for the process to move forward.
Ms Pelosi said: “I’m not holding them indefinitely.
”I’ll send them over when I’m ready. That will probably be soon.”
Ms Pelosi said she was waiting for what she wanted from the start – “to see the arena” and “terms of the engagement” that Mr McConnell will use – before sending her House managers to present the articles of impeachment in the Senate.
Mr McConnell told House Republicans he expected to get the articles as early as today which would set up a trial for next week.
But Democrats said they had seen no indication from Ms Pelosi on when the articles could move to the Senate and some doubted the papers would be filed until next week.
The Democratic-controlled House impeached Mr Trump in December on charges that he abused his power for personal gain by pressuring Ukraine to launch a corruption investigation of Joe Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in November’s presidential election.
Mr McConnell wants to consider calling witnesses well after the proceedings begin and has support from enough Republican lawmakers to adopt his plan without backing from Democrats.
He said: “This conversation is over. We are not ceding our constitutional authority to the partisan designs of the speaker.”
Mr McConnell walked Mr Trump through his intended trial format on Wednesday, according Washington insiders.
The Republican leader has neither shared text of a trial resolution with Mr Trump nor negotiated with the White House on how the measure would be worded.
But he has said it would be “very similar” to one adopted in January 1999 during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.
That resolution set deadlines for the prosecution and defence to submit “trial briefs” that laid out their cases in writing.
The resolution also allocated 24 hours for representatives of each side to make oral arguments and set aside 16 hours for senators to ask them questions.
It allowed senators to seek dismissal of the charges against Mr Clinton in the middle of the trial, which would have effectively ended the process.