/Pelosi says House will likely vote Wednesday to send impeachment articles to Senate to begin Trump trial

Pelosi says House will likely vote Wednesday to send impeachment articles to Senate to begin Trump trial

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that the House will vote Wednesday to send the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate, three sources in a Democratic caucus meeting told NBC News on Tuesday.

Sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate is necessary to begin the trial. Pelosi on Wednesday will also name the House “managers” who will prosecute the case against Trump in the Senate, the sources said.

A Wednesday vote could lead to a trial beginning next Tuesday, which lawmakers are expecting.

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Pelosi has held onto the articles for weeks, saying she would not submit them to the Senate until Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., outlined the trial rules and process.

McConnell, who pledged “total coordination” with the White House on impeachment last month, has called for a two-step procedure similar to that of President Bill Clinton’s trial in 1999. That process included an initial resolution to hear opening arguments, followed by a vote on whether to call witnesses.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants the Senate to call four witnesses, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton, who said this month he would testify if subpoenaed. Trump suggested last week he might block Bolton’s testimony.

The House passed two articles of impeachment against Trump last month. The first charged the president with abusing his power by pushing Ukraine to announce investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and Democrats as the president withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to the country and an official White House visit for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The second article charged Trump with obstructing Congress’ investigation into the matter.

Speaking to reporters outside the caucus meeting on Tuesday, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said that “everything” will be done by the House on Wednesday, including naming impeachment managers and voting on the resolution to approve them and send the articles to the Senate.

“The resolution will be done tomorrow, the managers will be named, and the resolution will have take about a 10-minute debate, and we’ll vote on it and then send it, send everything over,” he said.

The impeachment managers essentially act as prosecutors during the Senate trial. Though Pelosi’s picks have yet to be revealed, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., are expected to be named.

Pelosi is free to name an unspecified number of House members as managers. Clinton’s had 13, while the House sent seven case managers in former President Andrew Johnson’s trial.

Speaking with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Pelosi said she had no regrets about withholding the articles, saying it led to a robust discussion about having additional witnesses and documents made available for the Senate trial.

“I think that the American people have been very fair about saying, yes, we do want to see witnesses,” she said. “That wasn’t part of the discussion three weeks ago. It is now.”

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