Top Republican calls out Pelosi for withholding articles of impeachment

December 30, 2019 by Jerry McCormick

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is holding on to the articles of impeachment as though her life depended on it.

Because of that, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) is now ordering Pelosi to fulfill her duties and turn over the articles of impeachment to the Senate, The Washington Timesreports.

Do your job, Pelosi

As far as the House duties go on impeachment, they conduct hearings, then hold their vote to write the articles. Once the articles are written and agreed upon, they are sent to the speaker to be put on the floor for a vote.

If the vote passes, the House then transmits the documents to the Senate to establish the rules of the trial and conduct the trial itself.

The House is then represented in the Senate trial by the House managers named by the speaker.

Pelosi has nothing at all to say in how the Senate conducts its trial — that is up to Senate leadership to define. Scalise expressed as much, stating: “It’s her duty to turn it over. It’s not some mechanism she can control.”

He went on: “It’s not her role to go over to the Senate. She can run for the Senate if she wants to be a senator, but the House has a role, the Senate has a role. It’s time for the Senate to do their job.”

What are they up to?

Over the last few days, we have heard a lot of speculation among legal pundits on both sides of the aisle trying to figure out why Pelosi is breaking from the norm and holding onto the articles.

Besides the obvious theory that Pelosi is trying to control the Senate proceedings, there is also another theory floating around: that Pelosi is worried because she knows she has a very thin case.

There are several court cases that are still pending regarding testimony of former Trump officials, so some believe that Pelosi will attempt to hold the articles, hoping rulings are handed down in favor of the Democrats. Then, if the testimony resulting from those rulings works in their favor, they can add additional articles of impeachment to their case.

 

Ads by Revcontent

Legally, though, it is unclear just how long she can hold the articles — and some experts have even come forward to say the Senate can move forward without the House forwarding them at all.

Realistically, we should expect Pelosi to forward the articles after the holiday break. If not, we know she is up to something nefarious.