House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces impeachment managers for Trump's Senate trial
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday announced the impeachment managers who will lead the prosecution against President Donald Trump in his upcoming Senate trial.
- The following lawmakers will be impeachment managers: Rep. Adam Schiff of California, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, Rep. Zoe Loftren of California, Rep. Val Demings of Florida, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas.
- Pelosi's announcement came one day after the House Intelligence Committee released explosive new documents that dramatically raise the stakes of Trump's trial.
- It also came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters he believes several Republican senators will join Democrats in calling for witnesses in the trial.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday announced the impeachment managers who will lead the prosecution in President Donald Trump's upcoming trial in the Senate.
During a Wednesday news conference, Pelosi named the following lawmakers as impeachment managers:
- Rep. Adam Schiff of California.
- Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York.
- Rep. Zoe Loftren of California.
- Rep. Val Demings of Florida.
- Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
- Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado.
- Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas.
Impeachment managers present the case against an impeached individual - in this case Trump - to the Senate.
After the House selects managers, it adopts a resolution notifying the Senate of its actions. After that, the Senate notifies the House it is ready to receive the managers. The House impeachment managers then appear before the Senate and present the articles of impeachment. After reading the charges, they return to the House and make a verbal report.
Pelosi's announcement precedes a vote that will take place later on Wednesday to transmit the two articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate, triggering a trial.
The House of Representatives voted last month to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Both charges are related to his efforts to strongarm Ukraine into interfering in the 2020 US election by delivering political dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, as well as the Democrats.
The catalyst for the impeachment inquiry was an anonymous whistleblower complaint filed by a US intelligence official in August. The complaint detailed a July 25 phone call between Trump and the newly inaugurated Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
The complaint alleged that during the phone call, Trump repeatedly asked Zelensky to investigate the Bidens related to Hunter Biden's employment on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company that has been accused of corruption. Trump also pressured Zelensky to investigate a bogus conspiracy theory suggesting Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to help Democrats.
Neither allegation holds any merit.
A White House summary of the phone call, as well as Trump's own public statements, later confirmed the details of complaint.
Subsequent witness testimony in the impeachment inquiry revealed that the phone call was just one data point in a months-long pressure campaign by Trump and his allies in Ukraine. Witnesses also testified that senior White House and State Department officials were involved in burying details of the phone call after White House lawyers determined that the president may have violated the law by asking a foreign country to dip its toes into domestic political affairs.
Gordon Sondland, the US's ambassador to the European Union, testified that "everyone," including officials at the most senior levels of the executive branch, was in the loop as it related to Trump's efforts, and that Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, was his point man in Ukraine.
Explosive new evidence against Trump raises the stakes of Senate trial
On Tuesday evening, the House Intelligence Committee released new documents that show the extent to which Giuliani and one of his Ukrainian associates, Lev Parnas, went to carry out Trump's directives in Ukraine.
The release came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated to reporters that several Republican senators may join Democrats in calling for witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial.
The documents, which were turned over by Parnas, included excerpts from text messages between Parnas and Giuliani, as well as other Ukrainian figures involved in the controversy, like the former prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, and an American, Robert F. Hyde.
In one hand-written note from Parnas in which he detailed his responsibilities, he wrote that he had to get Zelensky "to announce that the Biden case will be investigated."
The texts, meanwhile, revealed that Parnas and his associates kept Marie Yovanovitch, who at the time was the US's ambassador to Ukraine, under close surveillance while she served in Kyiv.
Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled from her position last May following what she and others characterized as a smear campaign against her by Giuliani and Trump that was aided by Lutsenko, whom Yovanovitch had sharply criticized.
Giuliani has also publicly said that he felt he needed Yovanovitch "out of the way" because she was an obstacle in his path to getting the president the political dirt he wanted against his rivals.
Yovanovitch similarly testified that she believed she was removed because she refused to help Giuliani carry out his pressure campaign on Trump's behalf.
In one exchange with Parnas about Yovanovitch, Lutsenko wrote: "And here you can't even get rid of one [female] fool."
Parnas replied: "She's not a simple fool, trust me. But she's not getting away."
In another March 2019 text exchange, Parnas communicated with his associate, Robert F. Hyde, about tweets and videos accusing Yovanovitch of being anti-Trump.
Hyde wrote: "Wow. Can't believe Trumo [sic] hasn't fired this bitch. I'll get right in that."
Hyde later sent several texts suggesting he was surveilling Yovanovitch in Ukraine, adding, "They are willing to help if we/you would like a price."
Afterward, Hyde wrote, "Guess you can do anything in the Ukraine with money."
In another text message, Hyde told Parnas on March 27, 2019, "It's confirmed we have a person inside."
Previously unseen letter from Giuliani destroys Trump's defense
One particularly damning document was a letter from Giuliani to Zelensky dated May 10, 2019. In it, the former New York mayor told Zelensky, then Ukraine's president-elect, that he wanted to meet in person on May 13 and May 14.
"Just to be precise, I represent him as a private citizen, not as President of the United States," Giuliani wrote. "This is quite common under American law because the duties and privileges of a President and a private citizen are not the same."
One day before Giuliani wrote the letter, The New York Times reported that he wanted to meet with Ukrainian officials to discuss former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Specifically, he wanted the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden's involvement as a board member of the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings.
"We're not meddling in an election, we're meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do," Giuliani told The Times when asked whether by going to Ukraine and pressing for the inquiry, he was inviting foreign interference in the 2020 election.
Trump and Giuliani's efforts to pressure Ukraine into delivering dirt on the Bidens and Burisma make up the center of Congress' impeachment proceedings against Trump, which charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The president has said that his request for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens was linked to an interest in rooting out corruption, which is in the US's national interest.
But Giuliani's newly revealed letter directly undercuts that as it specifies that he was acting in his capacity as Trump's private attorney; in other words, he was representing the president's personal political interests, and not the country's interests.