The White House slammed House Democrats Wednesday morning for putting politics over the public after they unveiled their team of prosecutors for the Senate impeachment trial.
“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,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
“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,” she added.
Naming the impeachment managers was the final step for House Democrats before they vote to formally transmit two articles of impeachment to the Senate later Wednesday afternoon.
The House impeached Mr. Trump in a party-line vote Dec. 18, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The two articles of impeachment stem from a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president in which Mr. Trump requested a probe of a political rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
The vote Wednesday will mark the official end to a nearly month-long, unprecedented standoff between the Republican-held Senate and Democrat-controlled House.
Democrats in both chambers demanded that Republicans include new documents and witnesses in the trial that were blocked or came to light after the House concluded its investigation. However, the articles are being transferred without securing any such guarantees.
Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, and her deputies defended their strategy in holding on to the articles, despite failing to secure any guarantees from Mr. McConnell on witnesses.
They argued, citing recent polling that shows a majority of Americans want to hear from key witnesses like former National Security Advisor John Bolton, that they succeeded in convincing the public about what a fair trial would constitute.
“Time has been our friend in all this,” she said.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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