Trump impeachment article moves to Senate

The single article of impeachment against Donald Trump will on Monday evening be delivered to the Senate, where Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer is promising a quick but fair trial.

In the week after 8 February, the former president will face his second impeachment trial, this time on a charge of inciting the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol building on 6 January.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi will walk the article from the House, through the Capitol and to the Senate, marking the formal start of the impeachment trial.

But there will be a two-week quiet in proceedings, after Schumer and Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell reached an agreement on Friday.

The delay will give both legal teams two more weeks to prepare. Pelosi has named the House managers who will prosecute Trump, led by Jamie Raskin, a representative from Maryland who is also a professor of constitutional law.

An attorney from South Carolina, Karl Bowers, will lead Trump’s defense.

Trump, who has left Washington for his private resort in Florida, is accused of inciting the Capitol insurrection while trying to overturn his election defeat.

The impeachment article mentions his attempt to get Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, also a Republican, to “find” votes that would overturn the result there, as detailed in a recorded phone call that was obtained by reporters.

Though the Senate is now controlled by Democrats, two-thirds of senators must vote against Trump if he is to be convicted. That means 17 Republicans must go against a former president from their own party.

As of Friday, according to a tally by the Washington Post, 42 senators had said they supported impeachment, 19 were open to conviction, 28 were opposed and 11 had made no indication.