Delivery of the articles set the stage for the Senate to start the trial.
The delivery of the articles of impeachment on Wednesday evening by the House managers to the Senate set the stage for the formal opening on Thursday of the third impeachment trial in the nation’s history.
Even as the articles were delivered, the House released a second set of documents related to the impeachment inquiry from Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer. The New York Times is examining the documents. Check nytimes.com for news about what they reveal.
On Thursday, House managers will formally present the articles in a ceremony in the Senate chamber, which will be followed by the swearing-in of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. as the presiding officer of the trial, and the subsequent swearing-in of all 100 senators. Correspondents for The Times will follow all of the developments on Capitol Hill as they happen. Stay with us.
Some Democrats should recuse themselves from the trial, a senator said.
Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, called on the four senators seeking the Democratic nomination for president to recuse themselves from the trial because of “unparalleled political interest” in removing President Trump from office.
The candidates, Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, are all expected to leave the campaign trail and take an oath to hear the case against Mr. Trump.
“To participate in this trial would be a failure of the oath they took to be an ‘impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws,’” Ms. Blackburn said in a statement. “Their presidential ambitions prohibit their ability to view this trial through an objective lens.”
Inside the Senate, McConnell described the start of the trial.
More than two dozen Democrats, but only two Republicans — Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, and Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota — were in the Senate chamber, awaiting the arrival of the managers and the articles. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the Senate president pro tempore, was presiding.
The managers walked in at 5:34 p.m., with Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, in the lead, followed by Representative Adam B. Schiff and others. They stood, hands clasped, in the back corner of the chamber.
“Mr. President, a message from the House of Representatives,” the House clerk declared, before announcing the vote adopting the articles and appointing the managers. A Senate official marched toward Mr. Grassley to formally deliver the articles, and Mr. McConnell rose to announce a series of resolutions — agreed to by the consent of both parties — that will govern the opening days of the trial, which will begin in earnest on Tuesday.
“This is a difficult time for our country, but this is precisely the kind of time for which the framers created the Senate,” Mr. McConnell said. “I’m confident this body can rise above the short term-ism and factional fever and serve the long-term best interests of our nation. We can do this and we must.”
The articles reached the Senate.
The managers arrived at the ornate entrance to the Senate, which is flanked on either side by paintings of senators: William B. Allison, who represented Iowa from 1873 to 1908, and Joseph T. Robinson, who represented Arkansas from 1913 to 1937.
After marching solemnly from the other side of the Capitol, the managers stopped briefly before entering the Senate chamber.
Once the majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, finished his remarks, the managers quickly left.
The articles of impeachment were signed and certified.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California formally signed the articles of impeachment in an “engrossment ceremony,” before the seven lawmakers named as impeachment managers walked them across the Capitol to the Senate.
Under a portrait of George Washington in the stately Rayburn Room in the Capitol, Ms. Pelosi signed the documents. Cheryl L. Johnson, the House clerk, certified the documents, known formally as an engrossed resolution.
Ms. Pelosi was joined by the committee leaders who oversaw the impeachment inquiry and the impeachment managers as, in the speaker’s words, they “prepared to cross a very important threshold in American history.”
“Today, we will make history,” Ms. Pelosi said, framing the impeachment articles as a defense of the Constitution. “As we make that history, we are making progress for the American people.”
Those lawmakers flanked Ms. Pelosi as she used a number of pens to sign the resolution. Before the ceremony began shortly after 5:15 p.m., aides carefully adjusted the blue tablecloth where the documents were signed. A sign with the caucus’s hashtag for the moment — #DefendOurDemocracy — hung on the front of the table.
Some lawmakers, including Representatives Madeleine Dean and Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, and Jackie Speier of California, lined the walls to watch the ceremony. (Ms. Dean joined photographers to snap pictures of the unsigned articles and pens lined on silver dishes.)
Once she finished signing, Ms. Pelosi then handed the pens to the lawmakers who surrounded her for the ceremony.
Trump is of ‘two minds’ on trial witnesses, Rand Paul said.
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and a frequent ally of President Trump, said the president was “of two minds” on whether he would like to see witnesses called in the Senate trial.
“Like a lot of us are,” Mr. Paul said of the president’s divided views on witnesses. “I think he feels that he’s been unjustly accused, and would like to present his side of it.”
But he said in an interview that the president also believed ending the trial quickly would be appealing. “I think it’s hard to sort of turn down the idea that we could have a motion to end this thing after opening arguments,” Mr. Paul said.
Security was set up in the halls of the Capitol.
Golden stanchions with maroon velvet ropes were set up throughout the main hallway of the Capitol’s second floor as House managers prepared to march toward the Senate to deliver the articles of impeachment. Journalists — who are used to freely roaming the halls — will be required to stand behind the ropes as the formal procession passes by.
The managers are expected to march two by two from the House chamber, through the Statuary Hall and the Rotunda and past the Old Senate Chamber, before arriving at the entrance to the Senate, where they will deliver the articles.
Just tuning in to impeachment? Here’s a primer on how the process works.
C-SPAN’s president urged McConnell to allow the network’s cameras in the Senate for the trial.
The president of C-SPAN has urged Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to allow the cable news organization to position one of its cameras inside the Senate chamber during the impeachment trial.
Currently, the permanent cameras in the chamber are controlled by the Senate Recording Studio, which is operated by Senate employees. The video feed from those cameras is provided to C-SPAN, but the network does not control where the cameras are pointed.
In her letter written in December but released Wednesday, Susan Swain, the president and co-chief executive of the network, wrote that the current situation gave viewers “a restricted view of the Senate floor debates.” She argued that the American public deserved “a more comprehensive view of the Senate trial.”
Ms. Swain noted that Congress had in the past allowed C-SPAN-operated cameras inside the House chamber to cover events of significance such as the State of the Union address.
“The historic nature of a Senate trial and the intense interest on the part of millions of Americans — and the world — argues for a similar approach in the Senate,” Ms. Swain wrote in the letter.
The request is unlikely to be granted. The Senate has guarded its cameras and has very rarely allowed other cameras into the chamber. In a message posted on Wednesday to C-SPAN’s Twitter account, the network said, “Senate leaders say no decision has been made.”
Susan Collins credits herself and three colleagues for securing a vote on witnesses.
Senator Susan Collins, a centrist Republican from Maine, confirmed on Wednesday that Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, will include language in the Senate impeachment rules allowing a vote on whether to subpoena witnesses or new documents in President Trump’s trial.
Ms. Collins, who is facing a tough re-election challenge this year, has strongly suggested that she would vote to call witnesses, a step that Democrats have called crucial in light of Mr. Trump’s stonewalling of the impeachment inquiry, and that Mr. McConnell has resisted.
Mr. McConnell had already indicated that he planned to allow such a vote, saying he would model the resolution governing Mr. Trump’s trial on the one that set the rules for President Bill Clinton’s 1999 proceeding, in which a vote on witnesses could come after opening arguments and a question-and-answer period.
On Wednesday, Ms. Collins said Mr. McConnell agreed to leave open the possibility of witnesses because she and three other Republican colleagues — Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Mitt Romney of Utah — had insisted upon it in a series of private meetings she convened.
“It’s important that we have an up-or-down vote on the issue of subpoenaing witnesses and documents, and I’ve worked very hard to get that included, with all my colleagues that I’ve mentioned, into the governing resolution,” she told reporters in the Capitol.
Ms. Collins has come under heavy political pressure on the issue of impeachment, and has been outspoken about pressing for a fair trial. But she said her position is consistent with the one she took 21 years ago when the Senate was weighing Mr. Clinton’s fate.
“I happen to believe in the oath, and I believe in precedent, and that’s why I’m doing it,” Ms. Collins said.
A Trump ally cast doubt on whether House Republicans would be on the president’s defense team.
Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a Republican and close ally of President Trump, cast doubt on the prospect of any House Republicans being named to the official defense team for the Senate trial, telling reporters it was possible that some of Mr. Trump’s closest supporters on Capitol Hill would instead serve in a “consultant” role.
Mr. Gaetz also lavished praise on the team of impeachment managers Ms. Pelosi named earlier in the day, calling them her “A team” and singling out Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York. But he added that he was confident Republicans would also employ their best and brightest in the president’s defense.
A decision not to include some of the president’s most ardent defenders in the House would most likely appease a number of Republican senators like John Cornyn of Texas, who had urged the president not to let his defense team “infect the Senate trial with the circuslike atmosphere of the House.”
“I think there would be an increased risk of doing that if you start inviting House members to come over to the Senate and try the case,” Mr. Cornyn had warned.
Trump officials predicted the trial would last less than two weeks.
Senior administration officials on Wednesday said the House vote to approve the impeachment managers was long overdue and that it would be “extraordinarily unlikely” for the ensuing Senate trial, which they painted as an opportunity to “vindicate the president,” would take longer than two weeks.
The duration of the trial is uncertain, however, but some Senate leaders have predicted it could last from three to five weeks.
On a conference call with reporters that took place as Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor, senior administration officials projected confidence, calling theirs an “easy case” and said they did not expect the Senate to hear from any witnesses. They emphasized the White House position that the House was sending over weak articles of impeachment that show no crime or violation of any law.
The officials, who declined to identify themselves for publication, spoke on a so-called background call, which are routinely held so that the administration can offer the White House perspective on events involving Mr. Trump. They also would not say whether or not they would add House Republican members to the impeachment defense team, or whether Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, might represent him in the trial.
But they did not rule out calling witnesses like Hunter Biden and the still-anonymous whistle-blower whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry if Democrats sought to haul in witnesses like John R. Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser who has said he would be willing to testify.
The officials also implied that the White House would most likely seek to block Mr. Bolton from testifying if he were called as a witness.
One official said it would be an “extraordinary situation” to have Mr. Bolton testifying about communications he had directly with the president about foreign policy issues.
House voted to send the impeachment articles to the Senate and to name the managers.
The House of Representatives took its long-awaited action to send the Senate impeachment articles against President Trump, voting Wednesday afternoon to approve the House managers who will act as prosecutors in the case.
The 223-198 vote fell largely along party lines, with only one Democrat joining all the Republicans in opposition, and sets up what will be a highly partisan trial.
Representative Collin C. Peterson, Democrat of Minnesota, who voted against both impeachment articles last month, was the lone defector.
Pelosi took a swipe at Kevin McCarthy by noting a picture with Giuliani associates.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a not-so-subtle swipe at the House’s Republican leader as she argued Wednesday in favor of a final vote on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
During her remarks, Ms. Pelosi took note of documents released a day earlier from Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, that offer new details about the pressure campaign on Ukraine that sparked the impeachment inquiry.
Ms. Pelosi mentioned the documents and then added that Mr. Parnas had been “recently photographed with the Republican leader,” a reference to Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.
News organizations on Tuesday published photographs from 2016 of Mr. McCarthy posing with Mr. Parnas and Igor Fruman, another associate of Mr. Giuliani. Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman have both been charged with criminal violations of campaign finance laws.
The documents released Tuesday offer new details about the efforts by Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Parnas to pressure Ukraine about investigations that would benefit President Trump politically and to seek the ouster of the United States ambassador.
Pelosi thanked a top G.O.P. lawmaker for apologizing for his ‘ridiculous comments’ about Democrats.
As Ms. Pelosi began her speech on the House floor ahead of the vote to approve the impeachment managers and allow the articles of impeachment to move to the Senate chamber, she quickly and icily resurrected — and then put to bed — comments Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, made last week during a bitterly partisan dispute over whether to curtail President Trump’s war-making power in Iran.
Mr. Collins had accused Democrats of “being in love with terrorists,” a claim he later apologized for. “Let me be clear: I do not believe Democrats are in love with terrorists,” he said.
Stepping up the podium, Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Collins in a passing but stern sideswipe that she was glad he had walked the “ridiculous comments” back. “Thank you, we accept your apology, Mr. Collins,” she said.
Trump talked and talked and talked as the House wrapped up impeachment.
As the impeachment process got underway on Capitol Hill, Mr. Trump seized an opportunity for counterprogramming. At a White House event for a signing ceremony of the first phase of a trade deal with China, Mr. Trump devoted the first 30 minutes to reading out the name of almost everyone in the room — and even some people who weren’t.
“Where’s Rupert?” Mr. Trump asked at one point, a reference to the media magnate Rupert Murdoch, who was not on hand for the event. People close to Mr. Trump said that he had been reminded before the event that the impeachment proceedings would be taking place around the same time. He was offering counterprogramming, they said.
But the reminder did seem to nag at him, and Mr. Trump couldn’t resist the topic of impeachment altogether. He denounced the process anew as a “hoax” and told House Republicans attending the event that if they needed to, they could be excused to rush across town to the Capitol to vote against naming the managers and advancing the charges to the Senate.
“I’d rather have you voting than sitting here listening to me introduce you,” he said. “They have a hoax going on over there — let’s take care of it.”
Senate Republicans issued a rough schedule for the beginning of the trial.
With scant precedent to guide them and an icy relationship between the two chambers, the House and Senate have struggled this week to pin down precisely how and when the ceremonial handoff of articles will occur.
Senate Republicans issued their own new guidance Wednesday morning, though it was subject to change. Here is a rundown on the latest, from a Republican leadership aide:
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A House delegation will deliver a message around 5 p.m. Eastern today that it has appointed managers to exhibit articles of impeachment. The Senate will then notify the House when it is ready to receive the managers, most likely setting a time for Thursday. If the managers come and try to present the articles themselves at this point, they could be turned away by the Senate.
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As early as Thursday morning, the seven House managers will go into the Senate chamber and be led into the well, where they will read aloud the articles of impeachment.
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Some time later, probably around 1 p.m. Thursday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will travel from the Supreme Court to the Senate, where he will preside over the trial. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the president pro tempore, will administer an oath to do “impartial justice” to Justice Roberts. The chief justice will then administer the same oath to all 100 senators.
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Sometime thereafter, Senate rules dictate that President Trump must be summoned and given time to answer the charges against him. This answer would likely take written form and could take several days.
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The Senate is then expected to break for the holiday weekend and reconvene on Tuesday, when the trial will begin in earnest.
‘He will be held accountable,’ Pelosi said.
In her news conference announcing the House managers, Ms. Pelosi said she remains confident in what she described as a “strong case” against the president.
“What is at stake here is the Constitution of the United States,” she said. “This is what impeachment is about. The president violated his oath of office, undermined our national security, jeopardized the integrity of our elections, tried to use the appropriations process as his private ATM machine.”
She added: “He will be held accountable. He has been held accountable. He has been impeached. He has been impeached forever. They can never erase that.”
Chief Justice Roberts’s ‘O.K. Boomer’ wit grabbed attention ahead of his role in the trial.
Wednesday’s Supreme Court argument, over what federal workers must show to prove age discrimination, could have been dry and technical. Instead, it was a lively affair that spotlighted Chief Justice John G. Roberts’s sly wit, one that may serve him well when he crosses the street to preside over the impeachment trial.
The chief justice, who will turn 65 this month, asked whether a stray remark from a supervisor would suffice as evidence of age discrimination. Would a stinging “O.K., Boomer,” he asked, be enough?
When Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist presided over President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, he wore gold stripes on his robes inspired by a light opera. If nothing else, Chief Justice Roberts, who has cited Bob Dylan lyrics in an opinion, will bring a wholly different sensibility to the task.
John Bolton will speak in his book, if not at the Senate trial.
The Senate is still discussing whether it will hear witness testimony from John Bolton, the former national security adviser, who has said he would comply with a subpoena during the impeachment trial. But he’s planning to reveal some of what he saw regarding the Ukraine matter in his upcoming book, according to people familiar with the plan.
Mr. Bolton’s book, due to be published by Simon and Schuster, is almost finished, according to people familiar with his plans, and is set to be on sale well ahead of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions this summer. The book is going to describe Mr. Bolton’s time in the Trump White House and expand on at least some of what he saw regarding Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials into announcing an investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
The book will describe other global controversies related to Russia and Venezuela, and Mr. Bolton plans to detail his interactions with key figures in Mr. Trump’s administration. Some officials do not come off particularly well, according to the people familiar with the plan. They include the former United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, who held the job Mr. Bolton did during President George W. Bush’s administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff. A spokesman for Simon and Schuster did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Senators won’t be able to check their iPhones or talk among themselves during the trial.
The top Republican and Democratic senators on Wednesday jointly announced new restrictions on movement and behavior by lawmakers, staff and members of the public inside the Capitol during President Trump’s impeachment trial.
The restrictions on reporters, which was revealed on Tuesday, drew intense criticism from journalists who said they would impede their ability to interact with lawmakers as they carry out one of the most important constitutional duties.
But the letter from Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, made clear that even their own colleagues will have to change their usual routines during the impeachment trial.
Among those: “During the impeachment proceedings, standing will not be permitted on the floor and this requirement will be strictly enforced. Accordingly, all senators are requested to remain in their seats at all times they are on the Senate floor during the impeachment proceedings.”
That is a big change for senators, who are used to standing in the chamber to talk to each other just about any time they want.
The letter from Mr. McConnell and Mr. Schumer also indicates that access to the Senate floor by senators’ staff — who are usually allowed to come and go as they please — will be “severely restricted.”
Senators who have become addicted to checking their Twitter feeds on their iPhones will have to temporarily kick that habit — they will not be allowed to take electronic devices into the chamber during the trial. But perhaps the biggest change for senators? They are not supposed to talk.
“Senators will only have the opportunity for limited speech at the trial,” says a “Decorum Guidelines” document sent along with the letter. “Members should refrain from speaking to neighboring senators while the case is being presented.”
The articles will be finalized at an ‘engrossment ceremony’ later Wednesday.
Get out your congressional glossary, this is a tricky one. Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House will finalize its impeachment articles Wednesday at 5 p.m. in an “engrossment ceremony,” a term little used even among students of Congress.
An engrossed resolution is an official, final copy of something passed by the House, in this case the articles of impeachment. It must be signed by the speaker and certified by Cheryl L. Johnson, the House clerk, and includes any minor technical changes. The ceremony Wednesday is basically a television-friendly way to do that.
Ms. Pelosi and her managers will gather in the Capitol’s stately Rayburn Room, under a portrait of George Washington, to put their signatures on the articles to be sent over to the Senate.
The Congressional Research Service says that engrossed bills are to be printed on blue paper in the House, as opposed to white paper in the Senate or parchment for bills agreed to by both chambers that will become law. But it is unclear whether that is still the case if the resolution is in fact articles of impeachment. In this case, the speaker may have discretion over what type of paper or parchment the articles appear on.
Pelosi emphasized ‘comfort’ in the courtroom in her choices for impeachment managers.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi had held off on appointing the impeachment managers, she told reporters, in order to get a feel for the “arena” those lawmakers would have to present in. Ultimately, she decided, “the emphasis is on litigators.”
“The emphasis is on comfort level in the courtroom,” Ms. Pelosi said at her morning news conference. “The emphasis is making the strongest possible case to protect and defend our constitution, to seek the truth for the American people.”
Four of the seven managers have direct experience in a courtroom: Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the leader of the group, was a federal prosecutor for six years in Los Angeles, while Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, was a litigator in private practice. And both freshmen chosen for the role have litigation experience. Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, was a private litigator, and Representative Sylvia Garcia, Democrat of Texas, was presiding judge of the Houston municipal system.
White House accused Pelosi of lying for describing the impeachment inquiry as ‘vital to national security.’
Stephanie Grisham, the president’s press secretary, echoed past statements from President Trump and the White House, calling the impeachment a “sham” and “illegitimate” and accusing Speaker Nancy Pelosi of lying:
“The only thing Speaker Pelosi has achieved with this sham, illegitimate impeachment process, is to prove she is focused on politics instead of the American people. The Speaker lied when she claimed this was urgent and vital to national security because when the articles passed, she held them for an entire month in an egregious effort to garner political support. She failed and the naming of these managers does not change a single thing. President Trump has done nothing wrong. He looks forward to having the due process rights in the Senate that Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats denied to him, and expects to be fully exonerated. In the meantime, after President Trump signs the historic China Trade Deal greatly benefiting the people of this country, he will continue working and winning for all Americans, while the Democrats will continue only working against the President.”
After Ms. Pelosi’s news conference, Mr. Trump posted a single tweet.
“Here we go again, another Con Job by the Do Nothing Democrats,” he wrote. “All of this work was supposed to be done by the House, not the Senate!”
Mr. Trump is expected to sign a trade deal with China later Wednesday.
The impeachment managers were revealed.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California on Wednesday named seven House Democrats to serve as managers of the impeachment case against President Trump, selecting a diverse team to prosecute the case for his removal in the Senate.
As expected, the most prominent leaders of the impeachment investigation, Representatives Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will be part of the group.
Ms. Pelosi also named Representatives Zoe Lofgren of California, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Val B. Demings of Florida, Jason Crow of Colorado and Sylvia R. Garcia of Texas. Mr. Crow and Ms. Garcia are both first-term members.
The group will serve as the public face of the impeachment process starting immediately. They are expected to carry the two articles of impeachment over to the Senate chamber late Wednesday afternoon. Once the Senate signals it is ready to proceed with the trial, as early as Thursday, the managers will once again cross the Capitol, entering the Senate well to read aloud the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. And they will be the ones to make opening arguments in the case against the president at the start of the trial — only the third of its kind in American history — most likely beginning next week.
First, House leaders have set an early afternoon vote to formally appoint the managers and transmit the articles to the Senate.
The team, announced by Ms. Pelosi at a morning news conference, is smaller and far more diverse than the 13 white men chosen by Republicans in 1998 to prosecute President Bill Clinton during his Senate impeachment trial.
Documents from a Giuliani associate put new pressure on Republicans to hear evidence and testimony.
Documents released Tuesday by the House reveal new details about President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, increasing calls on Senate Republicans to subpoena additional documents and witnesses on the eve of the impeachment trial.
The documents were delivered to the House by Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer. They include letters, notes and text messages that link Mr. Trump more closely to the efforts to get Ukraine to announce investigations into the president’s political rivals.
And there are more revelations to come from Mr. Parnas. An official working on the impeachment inquiry said Tuesday that the House anticipated releasing additional tranches of material produced by Mr. Parnas.
Among the items disclosed Tuesday were notes scrawled on a sheet of paper from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Vienna saying: “Get Zelensky to announce that the Biden case will be investigated,” a reference to the effort to convince President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to announce an investigation of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter.
The documents also include a May 2019 letter from Mr. Giuliani that is the first public document to indicate that Mr. Trump was aware of his lawyer’s efforts. In the letter, Mr. Giuliani writes: “In my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent, I request a meeting with you.”
The documents also reveal that Mr. Parnas had been communicating with another man who appeared to be monitoring the movements of Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, before the president ousted her from her post. In a series of cryptic text messages exchanged on WhatsApp, Mr. Parnas communicated with Robert F. Hyde, a supporter of Mr. Trump who is now running for Congress in Connecticut. The messages suggested that Mr. Hyde was in touch with people in Ukraine who were watching Ms. Yovanovitch.
“They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” one message from Mr. Hyde to Mr. Parnas read.
According to the documents released Tuesday, Mr. Parnas was also in communication with Yuriy Lutsenko, a prosecutor in Ukraine who was helping Mr. Giuliani unearth damaging information about the Bidens. In one of the exchanges, Mr. Lutsenko messaged Mr. Parnas to complain that the administration had not yet removed Ms. Yovanovitch from her post.
“And here you can’t even get rid of one [female] fool,” Mr. Lutsenko wrote in an apparent reference to Ms. Yovanovitch. He also inserted a frowning emoji.
Pelosi criticized Trump and McConnell over evidence the Senate might not hear.
On the day that she plans to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, Speaker Nancy Pelosi began the morning with a pair of early-morning Twitter posts criticizing President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, for keeping witnesses and documents from Congress.
“There can be no full & fair trial in the Senate if Leader McConnell blocks the Senate from hearing witnesses and obtaining documents President Trump is covering up,” Ms. Pelosi wrote, adding: #DefendOurDemocracy.
The speaker’s tweets come just hours after the House released additional evidence from an associate to Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, of Mr. Trump’s involvement in pressuring Ukraine for investigations of his political rivals.
Dozens of pages of text messages, notes and other documents from Lev Parnas, Mr. Giuliani’s associate, adds more details to back up the House allegations that Mr. Trump and his aides orchestrated a blatant effort to solicit foreign help in the 2020 election.
Democrats said the new information puts additional pressure on Mr. McConnell and the president’s Republican allies for the Senate to subpoena additional witnesses and documents before making a decision about the president’s guilt.
“The President has fought tooth-and-nail to keep thousands of documents away from the public,” Ms. Pelosi said in one of her tweets. “And no wonder — each time new pieces come out, they show President Trump right at the center of the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.”