“The prospects for the process are vague”: who benefits from delaying Trump’s impeachment

The US Congress Senate held the first meeting after the New Year and Christmas on January 3, but the date of the hearing of the impeachment case to President Donald Trump has not been set. This question is also absent in the schedule of his work.

The reason is that the Senate, where the majority belongs to the Republican Party, has still not received charges against Trump - the so-called impeachment articles.

On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives, in which the majority of the Democrats, officially accused the U.S. president of abusing power and obstructing the work of lawmakers. The verdict was issued on the basis of an investigation conducted by several parliamentary committees. According to the US Constitution, the Senate must decide whether these charges are legitimate or not. If most of its members after studying the articles of impeachment convict Trump, he will be forced to leave his post.

However, the House of Representatives is ready to transfer the charges only after the Senate formulates the rules of the hearings in the case on the removal of the president from office. This was stated by speaker Nancy Pelosi.

At the same time, the Legal Committee of the House of Representatives on the eve of the Christmas parliamentary holidays admitted that it would continue the investigation against Trump even after formulating the charges. Lawmakers want to call Donald McGan, former White House legal adviser, to testify. The Senate categorically does not suit the continuation of the investigation by the lower house and generally any form of delaying the transfer of charges against Trump to the upper house.

“They (members of the House of Representatives) have passed their stage,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday at a meeting. “Now the Senate will have to make its sober decision, as was planned by the founding fathers.”

He also emphasized that one house of congress is not entitled to indicate to the other what legal actions it should take. In the words of McConnell, the “fantasies” of the House Speaker that she could set him the conditions and determine the Senate proceeding procedure are “not destined to come true”.

The reluctance of the senators to meet towards caused discontent Pelosi. The speaker called McConnell’s position proof that the head of the Senate majority "will be powerless to obey President Trump in hiding the truth about his abuse of power, and will be his accomplice in this matter."

The form does not match the content

Responsibility for delaying the impeachment process rests with the Democrats, experts say.

“It is the Democrat Pelosi who does not submit the impeachment article to the Senate. Apparently, her party members believe that delaying the process for an indefinite period is now beneficial for them, ”said Vladimir Vasiliev, the chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada, in an interview with RT.

• Nancy Pelosi
• Reuters
• © Jonathan Ernst

The expert noted that the outward position of the Democrats looks convincing: they want the Senate court (the so-called hearing on the case of the president’s removal from power) to be held as a real court.

“And this involves a clearly defined legal procedure. Since there is not just a vote, but a court, you need, for example, a list of witnesses from both the defense and the prosecution. The democratic faction in the Senate even called those whom it was going to call, ”said Vasiliev.

At the same time, he notes that the proposal of the Democrats to prescribe the impeachment procedure was made in a form that does not correspond to American political culture.

"In the United States, it is not accepted that the House of Representatives dictate terms to senators on any issues, especially on such an important matter as the removal of the president from power," says Vasiliev.

He believes that the position of McConnell, who insists that each house of Congress should be engaged only in its own business, will be more understood by the Americans.

HSE professor Alexander Domrin believes democrats are aware of the precariousness of their position, but they have no other choice.

“Democrats were in a stupid position. They did everything to send Trump to resign. But the accusation against him turned out to be so crude that if he is considered in an adversarial process, then this whole impeachment venture will hit the democrats themselves. They understand that the prospects for the process are vague. So now their goal is to postpone the transfer of the case to the Senate for the longest possible time, ”he said in an interview with RT.

Vasiliev draws attention to the fact that calling witnesses to testify in the upper house of Congress, which the Democrats insist on, may turn against themselves.

“The Republicans have already made it clear that they will call Joe Biden as a witness. In this case, it is likely that the trial of Trump will turn into a trial of Biden. This, of course, will be in the interests of the Republicans, ”the expert said.

Recall that Trump is charged with trying to pressure President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky to force him to actively investigate the case against Burism. Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, who served as vice president in the administration of Barack Obama and oversaw politics in Ukraine, worked in this oil and gas production campaign on Ukrainian territory from 2014 to 2019. Now Biden, Sr. is fighting for the right to become a Democratic candidate for the US presidency.

Impeachment at stake

Trump supporters have already proposed a way out of the emerging legal impasse. Republican Senator Josh Hawley announced that he intends to achieve the complete cancellation of the hearing on the removal of the president from power.

• Congress building
• Reuters
• © Loren Elliott

“Democrats spoke of the urgent need for impeachment. Now they do not want a trial, because they have no evidence. In the real world, they do this: if the prosecution does not advance the case, then it ceases. Therefore, on Monday I will submit an initiative to terminate this fictitious case of impeachment due to the lack of its development, ”he said on Twitter.

Dems said impeachment was URGENT. Now they don’t want to have a trial, because they have no evidence. In real world, if prosecution doesn't proceed with case, it gets dismissed. So on Monday, I will introduce measure to dismiss this bogus impeachment for lack of prosecution

Vasiliev believes that the impeachment case could be frozen without Hawley’s proposals.

“If Pelosi still does not submit the impeachment articles to the Senate, then the upper house will work as if there was no impeachment,” the expert believes.

This option could suit the Democrats, political scientists say.

“Democrats do not count on Trump’s actual removal from power: he won’t be, as Republicans have the majority in the Senate. However, they would be quite happy if the president was constantly under suspicion. The year of the election of the head of state has come. Media sympathizing with democrats will blow: “Look! Trump goes to the polls, but he is impeached, don’t vote for him, ”says Domrin.

According to Vasilyev, the Democrats have little time left to decide on their tactics. The Senate will convene at its next meeting on January 6th: before that date, Pelosi must decide whether to transfer impeachment articles unconditionally or not.