House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that she will take steps next week to send impeachment articles to the Senate, after delaying the process since last month in a bid to extract favorable terms for a trial.
“I have asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the Floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate. I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus meeting on how we proceed further,” Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote in a letter to colleagues.
The decision to release the articles came as fellow Democrats in recent days had started to voice frustration and impatience with the speaker’s approach. They stressed the urgency with which impeachment was treated at the end of 2019 and questioned why the House would then delay a trial by using articles as leverage.
Asked about Pelosi’s decision to move forward on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said: “About time.”
Pelosi nevertheless defended her approach in the memo, stressing important new information on the Ukraine controversy at the heart of impeachment that emerged during the interim.
“I am very proud of the courage and patriotism exhibited by our House Democratic Caucus as we support and defend the Constitution,” she wrote. She continued to press the Senate, as she has for weeks, to conduct a “fair trial” with witnesses and documents. – READ MORE