Pelosi clings to impeachment trial stalling strategy after it takes a major blow from McConnell

The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

Mitch McConnell says that he has the votes to move forward with establishing rules for “phase one” of an impeachment trial without having to cave to Democratic demands for the Senate to commit to calling witnesses ahead of time. Instead, the Senate majority leader explained, the plan would allow for both the prosecution and defense to make their arguments, for senators to submit written questions, and then for the question of calling witnesses to be addressed after that. Chuck Schumer has vowed to force votes on impeachment witnesses.

However, the start of a trial still hinges on the House actually sending over the articles of impeachment, and Nancy Pelosi says that she still wants more information before she can agree to that. In a public letter following McConnell’s announcement, Pelosi called on the Senate leader to publish the details of the proposed procedures so that “we can see the arena in which we will be participating, appoint managers and transmit the articles to the Senate.”

Pelosi also said that the kind of trial process that McConnell has put forward is “designed to deprive Senators and the American people of crucial documents and testimony.” But keep in mind that the House was in charge of the investigation into the question of Trump’s conduct and rushed to hold a pre-Christmas vote instead of taking the time to go to federal court and adjudicate the White House’s privilege claims over the witnesses in question; that blows a fairly sizable hole in the argument that the same information is now crucial enough to stall the process now that the investigation is over.

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Will Pelosi try to delay a Senate impeachment trial?

The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

Last night, the outcome that most observers have been expecting since election night 2018 came to fruition: The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump in a pair of mostly party-line votes with very few defections from Democrats.

Now, the next step in this whole process is expected to be a Senate trial, but there are some questions about when that’s going to happen, following reports that House Democrats might delay things.

At a news conference following the impeachment votes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t commit to sending the approved articles over to the Senate, citing fairness concerns about the trial process in the upper chamber. “So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” the speaker said. “That would’ve been our intention, but we’ll see what happens over there.”

This comes as some Democrats have reportedly been pushing Pelosi to withhold the articles as leverage for getting concessions on more Democrat-friendly trial terms. Rep. Earl Blumenauer has even gone so far as to argue that it would give the House more time to continue investigating the president.

Of course, given the capricious impeachment process that the American people have watched unfold in the House over the last few months, a dispute over actually sending the matter to the Senate almost seems like a fitting bookend.

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Republicans demand to hear Schiff's testimony on his impeachment report

The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

Yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing quickly devolved into a farce as Democrats reused a witness to return to the dais and question other witnesses. Multiple Republicans took issue with the fact that Democrats were using a staff attorney for both purposes, with committee member Andy Biggs slamming the setup as “unprecedented.”

One person whom nobody on the committee heard from at the hearing, however, was House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. Top committee Republican Doug Collins noted that investigators Robert Mueller and Ken Starr testified to the panel about the reports they assembled, but “The author of the Schiff report is not here. Instead, he's sending his staff to do his job for him."

“If Chairman Schiff thinks that he's a special prosecutor,” former committee chairman Jim Sensenbrenner explained in a statement, “then he needs to come testify before our committee and not hide behind his staff.”

During the hearing, Republican members of the committee even put up a large picture of Schiff’s face on the side of a milk carton with the caption “missing” over it.

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Pelosi calls on Dems to move ahead with articles of impeachment against Trump: 'The facts are uncontested'

In the latest development in the House of Representatives' impeachment saga, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has now called on her Democratic colleagues to move ahead with articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

In a Wednesday morning address from the Capitol Building, Pelosi said that "the facts are uncontested: The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit, at the expense of our national security, by withholding military aid and a crucial Oval Office meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival." She also added that Trump's "actions have seriously violated the Constitution" and that he "leaves us no choice but to act."

"Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for America," Pelosi concluded, "today I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment."

Video of the speaker's address can be found here.

The announcement comes one day after the House Judiciary Committee held its first public hearing of the impeachment inquiry, where the panel heard from a group of law professors about the constitutional grounds for impeaching a president, and just two days after Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee voted to approve the findings of the committee's probe into the president's behavior.

This development also raises the question of when the House will actually vote on impeachment, which still remains unclear. Earlier this week, a member of Pelosi's team reportedly suggested that a vote ahead of Christmas "doesn't fit the holiday spirit."

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