The U.S. House of Representatives will on Monday, deliver to the Senate, its impeachment charge against former President Donald Trump to the Senate.
Senate’s new Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, announced the move on the Senate floor on Friday, against former Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s request that the delivery be delayed.
Schumer displaced McConnell as the chamber’s leader after Democrats won two Georgia runoff elections this month.
“The House will deliver the article of impeachment to the Senate. The Senate will conduct a trial of the impeachment of Donald Trump.
“It will be a full trial. It will be a fair trial,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
That came the morning after McConnell asked the House to delay sending the charges until next Thursday, and to agree not to start the trial until mid-February.
The delay was aimed at giving Trump more time to prepare a defence against the charge that he incited insurrection by his followers who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“This impeachment began with an unprecedentedly fast and minimal process over in the House,” McConnell said on Friday.
“The sequel cannot be an insufficient Senate process that denies former President Trump his due process or damages the Senate or the presidency itself.”
