- Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell sent a memo to Republican senators explaining what an impeachment trial would look like.
- In the memo, obtained by The Washington Post, McConnell concludes that the trial would not begin until President Donald Trump stepped down.
- House Democrats said they plan to accuse Trump of “inciting an insurrection” after a deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol by a violent crowd of supporters of the president.
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Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell sent a memo to Republican senators explaining what an impeachment trial would look like, The Washington Post reported.
House Democrats said they plan to accuse President Donald Trump of “inciting an insurrection” after a deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol by a violent crowd of supporters of the president.
According to McConnell’s timeline in memo obtained by The Post, there is no way Trump could be removed from office before President-elect Joe Biden took office on January 20.
Since certifying election results early on Thursday, the Senate has been in recess until January 19 and therefore cannot begin the impeachment process before that without the unlikely consent of all 100 senators, said McConnell.
If the House sends articles of impeachment, the Senate can receive and respond when he returns on January 19. However, McConnell said the Senate’s Impeachment Rules require House members to display the articles the day after the Senate says it is prepared to receive them.
Without the Senate requesting in advance, that would mean January 20, the day of the inauguration.
McConnell concluded that the Senate trial would begin an hour or 25 hours after the end of Trump’s term.
—Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) January 9, 2021
At the start of Biden’s term, Senator Chuck Schumer will take over from McConnell as the majority leader, putting him ahead of the impeachment trial.
Aides to the senators told the Post that Schumer and McConnell did not discuss the impeachment trial.
In a draft impeachment article, House Democrats said, “President Trump has seriously threatened the security of the United States and its institutions of government.”
“It threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power and endangered a coordinated arm of the government,” said the draft.
The White House denounced the possible impeachment in a statement: “A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country.”