House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) On Tuesday appointed nine managers who will lead President Trump’s second impeachment – including Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has faced recent controversy over his relationship with a Chinese spy.
The House on Wednesday will begin impeachment proceedings against Trump for allegedly inciting the Capitol riot last week. The impeachment is expected to pass with overwhelming support from Democrats and at least three Republican votes.
Impeachment managers are responsible for bringing charges, giving them significant public attention and associating their own credibility with the case. They are particularly prominent during Senate trials.
Pelosi’s choice of Swalwell (D-Calif.) Is a bold statement by the member of the House’s intelligence committee, who declined to say whether he was romantically involved with the Chinese spy Fang Fang. The FBI warned him about Fang in 2015, during his first year on the House’s intelligence committee.
Swalwell’s father and brother remained active friends on the suspected spy’s Facebook until last month, when his operation was publicly reported.
Deputy Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) Will serve as the primary impeachment manager. The former law professor at American University is known for his balance and will assume the role played by the most controversial Dep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) During Trump’s first impeachment.
Raskin’s son, Tommy, 25, died of suicide on December 31 and he has received frequent bipartisan expressions of sympathy at recent hearings.
The other impeachment managers are representatives Diana DeGette from Colorado, David Cicilline from Rhode Island, Joaquin Castro from Texas, Ted Lieu from California, Stacey Plaskett from the Virgin Islands, Joe Neguse from Colorado and Madeleine Dean from Pennsylvania.
Pelosi said in a statement: “It is your constitutional and patriotic duty to present the case of impeachment and removal of the president. They will do so guided by their great love for the country, determination to protect our democracy and loyalty to our oath to the Constitution. Our managers will honor their duty to defend democracy for the people with great solemnity, devotion and urgency. “
Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, noted the diversity of managers, tweeting, “7/9 are women, people of color or LGBTQ.” Swalwell and Raskin are the only heterosexual white men.
While Trump is expected to quickly become the only president in U.S. history twice accused, the Senate should not start his trial until he leaves office on January 20. If he is convicted, he could be banned from office again.
Democrats and some Republicans accuse Trump of inciting the riot that killed four Trump supporters and a policeman by giving a defiant speech near the White House, in which he urged thousands of supporters to “fight like hell” to persuade lawmakers to overthrow the President-elect Joe Victoria de Biden. Trump claimed that the election was stolen from him through fraud – despite court decisions to the contrary.
The Capitol riot and invasion interrupted, but did not prevent, Biden’s certification of victory.
If the impeachment succeeds, as expected, it will be the fourth time in history that a president has been impeached. Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were also impeached. Richard Nixon resigned when impeachment was inevitable.
Trump was first accused by the House in December 2019 in a party vote for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democrats, including Hunter Biden, who earned $ 83,000 a month on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, while his father, vice president, led the Obama administration policy of Ukraine. The Senate voted according to party lines to acquit Trump in February, with a single Republican, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, voting to convict on one of two charges.