Donald Trump impeachment: House sends its case to Senate

The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution to submit articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for a trial.

The House impeached Trump last month. The Senate will decide whether to convict and remove him from office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will sign a copy of the resolution with the newly announced team of lawmakers who will prosecute the case against Trump.

The Senate impeachment trial will be only the third in US history.

While Democrats control the House, Trump's fellow Republicans hold sway in the Senate 53-47, and are all but certain to acquit him.

Pelosi appeared earlier at a news conference with the seven "managers" who will lead the Democratic case against the Republican president.

They will be led by Adam Schiff, the chairperson of the House intelligence committee.

The six others are Jerrold Nadler, head of the House judiciary committee, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Zoe Lofgren of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Val Demings of Florida and Sylvia Garcia of Texas.

Pelosi said on Wednesday morning: "I'm very proud to present the managers who will bring the case, which we have great confidence in, in terms of impeaching the president and his removal."

During the trial, Trump will be defended by White House lawyers, including Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow.

Trump was impeached by the House on 18 December, on accusations of abuse of power and obstruction of congress.

He denies trying to pressure Ukraine to open an investigation into his would-be Democratic White House challenger Joe Biden.

Trump has been touting unsubstantiated corruption claims about Mr Biden and his son, Hunter, who accepted a lucrative board position with a Ukrainian energy firm while his father handled American-Ukraine relations as US vice-president.

Biden is one of a dozen candidates campaigning for the Democratic Party's White House nomination.

The Senate trial might still be under way in early February when Iowa and New Hampshire hold the first contests to pick the eventual Democratic presidential candidate.

In the news conference, Pelosi defended her decision to hold off submitting the impeachment articles to Congress for more than three weeks as she quarrelled with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell about the trial rules, and even fellow Democrats urged her to stop stalling.

"Time has been our friend in all of this, because it has yielded incriminating evidence, more truth into the public domain," she told reporters.

As Pelosi spoke, Trump tweeted to call the process a "Con Job by the Do Nothing Democrats".

McConnell has said the trial is expected to begin in earnest next Tuesday.

Who are the House managers?

• Adam Schiff, 59, (California) a Harvard-educated lawyer who presided over much of the House impeachment inquiry
• Jerry Nadler, 72, (New York), the judiciary committee chairman who has been an adversary of Mr Trump since the 1980s
• Zoe Lofgren, 72, (California) a Capitol Hill staffer during Nixon's impeachment inquiry, she voted against President Clinton's impeachment
• Hakeem Jeffries, 49, (New York), a corporate lawyer by training and chairman of the Democratic caucus
• Val Demings, 62, (Florida) who was the first female police chief in Orlando. She sits on the judiciary and intelligence committees
• Jason Crow, 40, (Colorado) a former Army Ranger and Afghan and Iraq wars veteran who wrested a seat from a Republican in 2018
• Sylvia Garcia, 69, (Texas) a first-term congresswoman who previously served as a judge for the Houston municipal court system

Who are Trump's trial lawyers?

• Pat Cipollone, 53, a litigation attorney and partner at America's largest legal firm by revenue, described by Trump as "the strong silent type"
• Jay Sekulow, 63, Mr Trump's private lawyer for the last two years, an outspoken counsel who has been a fierce defender of the president on television

- BBC