WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is proposing to postpone the start of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial to February to give the former president time to prepare and review his case.
House Democrats who voted for Trump’s impeachment last week for inciting the deadly riot on the January 6 Capitol have signaled that they want to move quickly to trial when President Joe Biden begins his term, saying that a reckoning is necessary before the country – and Congress – can go ahead.
But McConnell, in a statement late on Thursday, suggested a broader timetable that would lead the House to transmit the impeachment article next week, on January 28, launching the first phase of the trial. After that, the Senate would give the president’s defense team and House prosecutors two weeks to present the documents. The discussions at the trial were likely to start in mid-February.
“Senate Republicans are strongly united behind the principle that the Senate institution, the presidential office and former President Trump himself deserve a complete and fair process that respects their rights and the serious factual, legal and constitutional issues in game, ”Especially given the unprecedented speed of the House process, said McConnell.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., is reviewing the plan and will discuss it with McConnell, a spokesman said. The two leaders are also negotiating how the new 50-50 Senate will work and how they will balance other priorities.
The postponement of the trial could attract some Democrats, as it would give the Senate more time to confirm those nominated to Biden’s office and debate a new round of coronavirus relief. Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, an important ally of the president, told CNN that Democrats would consider a postponement “if we are making progress in confirming the talented, experienced and diverse team that President Joe Biden has appointed”.
Maximum power over time lies with Mayor Nancy Pelosi, who can trigger the start of the trial at any time, sending the Senate the charge of inciting an insurrection. The California Democrat has yet to say when he will do this.
“It will be soon. I don’t think it will take long, but we have to do it,” said Pelosi on Thursday. She said that Trump does not deserve a “prison card” just because he left office and Biden and others are asking for national unity.
Facing his second impeachment trial in two years, Trump began building his defense team by hiring lawyer Butch Bowers to represent him, according to an adviser. Bowers previously served as a lawyer for former South Carolina governors Nikki Haley and Mark Sanford.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina helped Trump find Bowers after members of his previous legal teams indicated they did not plan to join the new effort. Trump is at a disadvantage compared to his first trial, in which he had all the resources of the White House lawyer’s office to defend him.
Pelosi’s nine impeachment managers, who will process the Chamber’s case, have been meeting regularly to discuss the strategy. Pelosi said he would speak to them “in the next few days” about when the Senate would be ready for a trial.
Just before the January 6 uprising, Trump told thousands of his supporters at a rally near the White House to “fight like hell” against the election results that Congress was certifying. A crowd marched to the Capitol and ran in, interrupting the count. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died in chaos, and the House accused Trump a week later, with 10 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
Pelosi said it would be “harmful to unity” to forget that “people died here on January 6, in an attempt to undermine our election, undermine our democracy, dishonor our Constitution”.
Trump was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate in his first impeachment trial. The White House legal team, aided by Trump’s personal lawyers, aggressively fought the House’s charges that he had encouraged the President of Ukraine to investigate Biden in exchange for military aid. This time, Pelosi noted, the Chamber does not seek to condemn the president through private conversations, but through a public insurrection that they themselves experienced and which was broadcast live on television.
“This year, the whole world has witnessed the incitement of the president,” said Pelosi.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate’s second Democrat, said it was too early to know how long a trial would take or whether Democrats would like to call witnesses. But he said, “You don’t have to tell us what was going on with the crowd scene that we were running down the stairs to escape.”
McConnell, who said this week that Trump “teased” his supporters before the riot, did not say how he would vote. He told his colleagues in the Republican Party that it would be a vote of conscience.
Democrats would need the support of at least 17 Republicans to condemn Trump, a high bar. While some Senate Republicans have indicated that they are open to sentencing, most said they believed a trial would cause division and questioned the legality of trying a president after he stepped down.
Graham said that if he were Trump’s lawyer, he would focus on that argument and the merits of the case – and whether it was “incitement” under the law.
“I think the public record is your television screen,” said Graham. “So, I don’t see why it would take so long.”
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Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Columbia, SC and Jill Colvin in West Palm Beach, Florida contributed to this report.