Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) announced Wednesday morning the House of Representatives managers for Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Pelosi names seven House Democrats to serve as managers: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff of California, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Congresswoman Val Demings of Florida, Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado and Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia of Texas.
The House is set to vote on the managers from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. today, after a 10-minute debate. Pelosi and the managers will hold a ceremony at 5 p.m., and the managers will then deliver the charges to the Senate.
Pelosi said she chose these seven because of their experience as litigators and are representatives she believed would be comfortable presenting the House’s case at trial. Schiff and Nadler are chairmen of the committees that took responsibility for the impeachment inquiry in the House.
She purposely delayed announcing the managers in hopes of getting Senate Republicans to agree to having witnesses and evidence presented before she releases the articles of impeachment. “Time has been our friend in all of this because it has yielded incriminating evidence, more truth into the public domain,” Pelosi said.
Schiff stressed the importance of calling witnesses into the impeachment trial. “If McConnell makes this the first trial in history without witnesses, it will be exposed for what it is and that is an effort to cover up for the president,” Schiff said.
The House voted to impeach the president on two articles, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, in December, but have held back from delivering the articles to the Senate as procedure requires. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday he expected the impeachment trial to begin on January 21.
