Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Monday that House Intelligence Committe chair, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), House Judiciary Committee Chair, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and five others will serve as “impeachment managers” in the impending Senate impeachment trial, acting as prosecutors to prove the case against President Donald Trump.
Assisting Schiff and Nadler, who ran the two committees responsible for investigating the president and drafting the articles of impeachment, will be House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, (D-NY), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), and Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX).
“The job of the impeachment managers in a Senate trial is to lay out the House approved arguments for removing the president from office. The president’s lawyers will argue the opposing point, and the Senate will ultimately vote on whether to remove Trump from office,” CNBC reported Wednesday. “In that sense, the task of the impeachment managers resembles that of a prosecutor in a civil trial, although the rules and procedures for an impeachment trial are completely different.”
The House will vote to confirm the seven-member prosecutorial team Wednesday morning. It is expected to vote Wednesday afternoon to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate after a delay of nearly a month.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday morning, Pelosi claimed that the team was chosen for their courtroom experience.
“I am proud to present the managers who will bring the case which we have great confidence in impeaching the president for his removal,” she said. “The emphasis is on litigators.”
Pelosi also tweeted out a “fact sheet” on the seven-member team, touting their experience as attorneys and, in some cases, their extensive experience as legislators. Lofgren, Pelosi was quick to mention during her conference, has been in Congress so long that she’s served through three impeachments: Trump’s, Clinton’s, and Nixon’s.
Today, I have the privilege of naming the Managers of the impeachment trial of the President. #DefendOurDemocracy pic.twitter.com/Y2613Ni3pC
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 15, 2020
Pelosi, however, appeared to be on the defensive during the press conference, particularly when asked about the holes in the House team’s case against the president — holes noticed by everyone from independent voters, who have fallen away from approving of the impeachment by double digits, to the mainstream media.
Pelosi was adamant that, regardless of the outcome of the Senate trial — acquittal is nearly a foregone conclusion — the House impeachment will remain a stain on Trump’s permanent legacy.
“He’s been impeached forever. They can never erase that,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi was also asked why the House chose to pursue impeachment, given that Trump could have simply faced the electorate while still under House scrutiny. Both Nadler and Schiff took turns answering the question, first suggesting that Trump had “obstructed” justice to the degree that a full impeachment inquiry could take “years,” and then claiming that Trump’s actions were designed to upend the forthcoming presidential election.
“There is an overwhelming case, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the president betrayed the country by withholding federal funds appropriated by Congress, breaking the law in doing so, in order to extort a foreign government into intervening in our election to embarrass a political opponent,” Nadler said.
When asked why the Democrats are pushing for witnesses in the Senate when they could have called additional witnesses in the House — Schiff’s impeachment panel was, of course, only a two-week affair — Schiff said he believed the administration would have simply “obstructed” the process, leaving him no choice but to limit his lineup. Schiff, of course, likely limited the number of witnesses in the House in order to avoid any testimony that might benefit Trump — a danger that would still be present if witnesses were called in the Senate.