Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the Senate will receive the House’s article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump on Monday, triggering the start of the impeachment trial.
“I have spoken to Speaker Pelosi who informed me that the articles will be delivered to the Senate on Monday,” Schumer said Friday, according to CNN.
If the article is delivered on Monday, the Senate trial would begin at 1 p.m. EST on Tuesday, unless Senators agree to push the trial back.
Senators and the presiding officer would be sworn in at that time and the arguments would begin on Wednesday.
It is unclear at this time if Chief Justice John Roberts will preside over the trial.
Sources that CNN did not name said the trial is expected to be shorter than the 2020 impeachment trial, which lasted three weeks.
Whether the Senate can hold an impeachment trial for a former president is still up for debate.
Sen. Tom Cotton argued last week that the Senate “lacks constitutional authority” to hold the trial because the impeachment process was not created for the Senate to go after private citizens.
“The House has passed an article of impeachment against the president, but the Senate under its rules and precedents cannot start and conclude a fair trial before the president leaves office next week,” the Arkansas Republican said.
“Under these circumstances, the Senate lacks constitutional authority to conduct impeachment proceedings against a former president.”
“The Founders designed the impeachment process as a way to remove officeholders from public office — not an inquest against private citizens,” he added. “The Constitution presupposes an office from which an impeached officeholder can be removed.”
Schumer pushed back on the argument and said that legal scholars have not set a precedent for it.
“The Senate will conduct a trial of the impeachment of Donald Trump,” Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has proposed delaying the trial until February in order to give Trump’s legal team a “full and fair process” and time to prepare his defense.
Pushing the timeline forward would mean delaying the confirmation of Biden’s Cabinet nominees as well as other important American business.
This is an excerpt from The Western Journal.
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