Pelosi Says She Will Delay Impeachment Until Dems Are Guaranteed a ‘Fair Trial’ in the Senate
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Wednesday that she will delay transfer of the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate until the Democrats are guaranteed a “fair” trial.
“So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” Pelosi told reporters after the House approved two articles of impeachment. “That would’ve been our intention, but we’ll see what happens over there.”
The House still must vote to name impeachment managers, who will present the case in a Senate trial, but senior Democratic aides told Politico that the vote will probably not take place until at least early January.
When a reporter asked if Democrats might delay in sending the articles to the Senate, Pelosi responded, “You’re asking me, ‘So are we all going to go out and play in the snow?’ That has not been part of our conversations.”
House Democrats suggested earlier on Wednesday that they could delay transfer of the articles to pressure the Senate to set parameters for the trial that would be more favorable to Democrats.
“Who knows what would happen to augment the record” if the trial were delayed, said Representative Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.). “This ought to be able to play out…There’s no advantage to rushing this.” Blumenauer said he had spoken to at least 30 Democrats who had expressed some level of support for the idea.
The White House condemned the move by Democrats to delay a trial.
“House Democrats have run a fatally flawed process with fake facts, and now they want to deny the President his day in court with another procedural maneuver that proves anew they have no case,” said Trump congressional liason Eric Ueland.
