The question of who will represent Trump remains unanswered.
“They have now informed us they are ready to receive, the question is other questions about how a trial will proceed, but we are ready,” Pelosi said of the Senate.
House Democrats are in discussions to send over the article of impeachment to the Senate as early as Friday, two sources say, but a complicating factor remains the fact that Trump still does not have a lawyer to represent him in a Senate trial.
“The articles could be walked over Friday,” one source told CNN.
There are also discussions about how to ensure a trial can move quickly and not overwhelm President Joe Biden’s agenda, but ultimately no timing has been finalized. Trump’s lack of lawyers underscores the chaos that the former President is still injecting on Capitol Hill even after he left Washington on Wednesday before Biden’s inauguration.
Republicans have urged Democrats to abandon the Senate impeachment trial of Trump, arguing both that it’s unconstitutional and that it directly undercuts Biden’s inauguration message of unity in the first days of his presidency.
Pelosi rejected those calls on Thursday.
“No, I’m not worried about that,” she said. “The fact is, the President of the United States committed an act of incitement of insurrection. I don’t think it’s very unifying to say, oh, let’s just forget it and move on. That’s not how you unify. … You don’t say to a president ‘Do whatever you want in the last months of your administration, you’re going to get a get-out-of-jail card free.'”
During Trump’s 2020 impeachment trial, House impeachment managers focused much of their case on the need to have witnesses in the trial to corroborate their charges that Trump sought Ukraine’s help to undermine Biden ahead of the 2020 campaign. That push ultimately failed, as Republicans voted against hearing witnesses before Trump was acquitted.
This time around, Democrats are eyeing a quick trial, given the fact that the Senate is likely to be stalled while the trial is ongoing — meaning Biden’s Cabinet nominees would be delayed in getting confirmed.
Democrats have yet to say whether they will seek witnesses for this trial, but Pelosi hinted Thursday they might not need to do so, saying the decision would be up to the managers.
“I do see a big difference between something we all witnessed versus information you might need to substantiate an article of impeachment based in large part on a call the President made and described as perfect,” Pelosi said. “This year, the whole world bore witness to the President’s incitement, to the execution of his call to action and the violence that was used.”
House impeachment managers are meeting and preparing to make their case to the Senate, and Democrats remain hopeful they can convince 17 Republican to convict Trump, especially given the fact that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he is keeping an open mind and will listen to the argument.
A faction of Senate Republicans, however, are warning McConnell that his backing will quickly wane in the Senate GOP conference if he votes to convict Trump.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Thursday.