Skip to main content
Global Edition
Friday, March 29, 2024

Pelosi: Schiff to lead prosecution at Trump impeachment trial

Duration: 01:59s 0 shares 1 views

Pelosi: Schiff to lead prosecution at Trump impeachment trial
Pelosi: Schiff to lead prosecution at Trump impeachment trial

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday named the seven lawmakers who will prosecute U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate.

Zachary Goelman reports.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday (January 15) named seven lawmakers who will make the case for removing President Donald Trump from office when his impeachment trial goes to the Senate.

The team are known as impeachment managers, and are effectively the prosecutors.

Many of the names will come as no surprise to those who've followed the impeachment proceedings so far.

At the top of the list: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff who led the impeachment inquiry into allegations Donald Trump tried to pressure Ukraine into opening a corruption investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF, SAYING: "The president was trying to get foreign help in cheating in the next election." Schiff is a former federal prosecutor.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER, SAYING: "The president betrayed the country." Also named to the ream: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Naddler, who ran a bruising panel last year which ultimately approved the articles of impeachment against the president.

And Zoe Lofgren, a veteran representative whose Congressional career goes back to the 1970's when she served as a staff member to the House Judiciary Committee during Nixon's impeachment proceedings.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. DEMOCRATIC HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI, SAYING: "The emphasis is on litigators." Of the seven, six are lawyers.

Florida Representative Val Demings is a former chief of the Orlando police department.

The naming of managers comes the same day the House votes to send impeachment articles over to the Senate.

The articles were approved last month, accusing Trump of abusing his office and obstructing the inquiry.

Trump denies wrongdoing and has railed against the proceedings.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, has called the Democrats' case against Trump "weak" and said he is coordinating strategy closely with the White House.

But on Tuesday, he rejected the idea - pushed by Trump - that the Senate vote to dismiss the trial outright.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. REPUBLICAN SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL SAYING: "There is literally no appetite in the Republican conference for a motion to dismiss." It's unlikely that the Republican-controlled body will vote to remove a Republican president.

But Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday emphasized that, no matter the outcome of the trial, Donald Trump will go down as one of just three presidents permanently branded with impeachment.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. DEMOCRATIC HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI, SAYING: "Impeachment that will last forever."

You might like