Who Are The Impeachment Managers? Pelosi Unveils Diverse Team For Trump Trial
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi identified seven impeachment managers on Wednesday — the group that will act as the prosecution team presenting the House Democrats' case in the Senate trial.
This diverse group includes some familiar faces from key House committees that conducted the House inquiry, but also some lesser-known members whom Pelosi says she picked because of their legal backgrounds.
"The emphasis is on litigators. The emphasis is on comfort level in the courtroom," Pelosi said.
Read the resolution designating the managers.
The group is expected to present the articles to the Senate on Thursday, which includes reading the text of the two articles the House approved in December on the Senate floor.
The Senate is expected to approve an organizing resolution on Tuesday that specifies how many hours the managers will have to present their case as well as how much time the president's defense team will have to make its arguments.
The Managers:
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He was tapped by Pelosi to be the point person on the impeachment inquiry in September immediately after she announced her decision to move forward with the probe.
Schiff conducted both closed-door depositions with administration witnesses as well as open hearings and is a close ally of the speaker's. He crafted the report on his panel's investigation that followed a whistleblower's complaint that the president conditioned military aid to Ukraine on a public commitment from the government that it would probe former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Nadler's panel crafted the two articles of impeachment against the president after the intelligence committee completed its investigation.
Nadler oversaw the panel's hearing on those articles and was a member of the Judiciary Committee during then-President Clinton's impeachment in 1998.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., is senior member of the House Judiciary Committee. She served as a committee aide during House's impeachment proceedings for President Richard Nixon and also was a member of the panel during the Clinton impeachment.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the fourth-ranking House Democratic leader as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. Before he ran for office, Jeffries was a litigator in private practice in New York. He's viewed as a rising star in Democratic leadership.
Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., is member of both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. She served as Orlando's chief of police after a long career in the department — becoming the first woman to hold that post before she ran for Congress.
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., is a freshman who served as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike other impeachment managers, Crow does not serve on any of the panels that conducted the impeachment inquiry.
But Crow was one of seven freshmen with national security backgrounds who co-wrote a column in the Washington Post in September arguing it was time to move forward with impeachment. Like Jeffries, he worked as a attorney in private practice before he ran for Congress.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, is a member of the House Judiciary Committee. She served as judge in Houston. Pelosi stressed that Garcia was the first Hispanic person and first women elected to the county commissioner's court. She was also the first Latina elected to represent her district in Congress.
The impeachment managers are expected to split which of them presents the various arguments of the House's case in the first part of the Senate trial.
Articles of impeachment
Article 1 of the House resolution alleges the president abused his power because he used his position to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election in the Ukraine affair. Article 2 outlines how Democrats believe the president obstructed Congress by blocking administration officials from providing testimony or documents.
Trump and many Republican supporters reject the basis for impeachment. Not only did Trump ultimately release the funds for Ukraine that had been frozen for a time last year, Ukraine's president did not agree to conduct the investigation that Trump wanted into the Bidens.
Republicans control the majority in the Senate and they're expected to vote to acquit Trump on both charges, permitting him to keep his office at the conclusion of the trial. [Copyright 2020 NPR]
