Pelosi says to send Trump impeachment articles to Senate next week

WASHINGTON, Jan 11 -- United States (US) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump will be sent to the Senate next week, Xinhua news agency reported.

Pelosi, in a letter to her Democratic colleagues, said that she has asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the House floor "a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate."

"I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus meeting on how we proceed further," Xinhua reported, quoting the California Democrat as saying in the letter.

The Democrat-led House impeached Trump last month for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, charges the White House has refuted.

Pelosi, who initiated an impeachment inquiry into Trump in September 2019, has been withholding the articles of impeachment and has refused to name impeachment managers, who will make the House's impeachment case in a Senate trial.

Pressure is mounting on Pelosi, who is trying to give Democrats more leverage in setting rules for the trial in the Senate, where Republicans have a narrow majority.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has criticized Pelosi's moves, has said that the Senate should model Trump's impeachment trial after that of former President Bill Clinton's case in 1999 by dealing with potential witnesses after the trial begins.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, has said he wants to make sure certain witnesses would be called upon for the trial before it starts, which McConnell has so far rejected.

-- BERNAMA