Susan Collins claimed credit for securing a vote on witnesses.
Senator Susan Collins, a centrist Republican from Maine, claimed credit on Wednesday for pressing Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to allow the Senate to vote on whether to subpoena witnesses or new documents in President Trump’s impeachment 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.
On Wednesday, she said she had been working with a small group of Republicans — Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Mitt Romney of Utah — to leave open the possibility.
“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.
Mr. McConnell announced plans last week to do just that, saying he would model the trial rules on those that governed the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
But Ms. Collins, who is under heavy political pressure in the impeachment trial, is eager to highlight her efforts to press for a fair trial of Mr. Trump.
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, and 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.”