Pelosi announces impeachment managers, House votes to send articles to Senate for trial (VIDEO)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has named the House Democrats who will serve as seven impeachment managers – or prosecutors outlining the case – in the Senate trial of President Donald Trump.

The case against Trump will be led by California Rep. Adam Schiff, who as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee led the initial impeachment inquiry against Trump. House Judiciary chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (NY) will act as Schiff’s second in command. A long-time opponent of Trump, Nadler’s committee drafted the articles of impeachment following Schiff’s inquiry.

Democratic Representatives Zoe Lofgren (CA), Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Val Demings (FL), Jason Crow (CO), and Sylvia Garcia (TX) were also named as managers. All have a legal background, and Pelosi told reporters that her emphasis was on choosing “litigators, the emphasis is on comfort level in the courtroom.”

Schiff and Nadler reiterated their argument that Trump must be removed from office, in the face of “overwhelming evidence” he is “trying to rig” next year’s election, in the words of Nadler.

Following Pelosi’s announcement,  the House voted along the party lines to send the articles of impeachment – charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – to the Senate. , and the managers will ceremonially walk the two articles to the other side of the Congress building.

The impeachment effort against Trump centers on allegations that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reopen a corruption investigation into the family of Joe Biden – a frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic nomination. Democrats have cited a July phone call between Trump and Zelensky as evidence of this, as well as testimony from a host of secondhand witnesses to the call.

Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart have denied any impropriety, with Trump accusing the Democrats of running a “witch hunt” against him.

Pelosi withheld the articles from the Senate for a month in a bid to pressure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to accept her terms for the trial, and as Democrats scrambled to secure further witnesses and testimony from White House insiders, including former National Security Advisor John Bolton. This led to derision from Republicans, given that Democrats cited the need for speedy impeachment last month, calling Trump a “clear and present danger” to the United States.

Faced with a Republican motion to dismiss the trial, Pelosi folded and announced last week that the articles would be sent, and McConnell’s terms – based on the 1998 impeachment trial of Bill Clinton – accepted.

Though the impeachment case is about Ukraine, Pelosi saw fit to resurrect the long-disproven allegations of Trump’s ‘Russian collusion’. “Voters in American should decide who our president is, not Vladimir Putin,” she told reporters on Wednesday, without offering any context.

The Republican-controlled Senate is expected to acquit Trump. None of the upper house’s 53 Republicans have voiced support for removing the president from office, and a two-thirds majority is required to oust Trump.

Perhaps anticipating this, Pelosi said that the case against Trump, regardless of its outcome, is “an impeachment that will last forever.”

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