Impeachment: Senate receives Trump indictment, trial to begin

**Democratic President of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, January 14, 2020 at the Capitol in Washington.**

After weeks of waiting, the House of Representatives will vote Wednesday to send the Senate the indictment it has retained against Donald Trump, the last step before the start of the trial for the removal of the Republican President.

It must first announce at 10:00 am (3:00 pm GMT) who are the "designated prosecutors", these elected Democrats of the House charged initially with crossing the Capitol to bring the indictment to the upper house.

Democratic House Speaker and main opponent of Donald Trump in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, announced Tuesday after a closed-door meeting with his elected officials that the indictment would finally be passed to the Senate on Wednesday. Republican majority, after a final vote in plenary session in the lower house.

Nancy Pelosi, after the historic vote in the House on December 18, in which the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress were brought against Donald Trump, were delayed in transmitting indictment in the Senate in the hope of obtaining guarantees on the organization of a "fair" trial .

Senate Republicans leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he would "in all probability" initiate "preliminary steps" before the start of the trial before the end of the week, including the swearing in of senators before the chief of the Supreme Court of the United States John Roberts.

"We hope to achieve this by consensus, which would allow a real start to the trial next Tuesday," added this loyal support from Donald Trump, determined to get the president out of this difficult patch as quickly as possible.

"Why did Nancy the nervous and the corrupt politician Adam Schiff the deceit not give us a fair trial in the House?", For his part was moved by the Republican President in a tweet Tuesday evening, true to his line of defense which saw him in particular qualify this procedure against him as "coup".

At a rally Tuesday evening in Wisconsin, the president denounced the behavior of the Democrats.

"While we are creating jobs and killing terrorists, the Democrats in Congress are wasting America's time with demented sham and foolish witch hunts," he said.

Serious events

The opposition is convinced that the president used state resources to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden, his potential opponent in the November presidential election.

They accuse him in particular of having frozen crucial military aid for this country in armed conflict with its Russian neighbor, in order to achieve its ends.

The Republicans, who are united around Donald Trump, denounce them, an unfounded "witch hunt", fed according to them by the aversion of the opposition for this atypical president.

Democrats, who can count on 47 votes (out of 100) in the Senate, are aware that they have almost no chance of removing the former New York businessman, a two-thirds majority being necessary.

But they hope to bring out embarrassing information for Donald Trump.

After Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1999, "the Senate will begin the third trial for the removal of a sitting president," said the leader of the Democratic minority in the upper house, Chuck Schumer, repeating that the facts the charges against Donald Trump were "serious".

The Democrats are calling for the summoning of four close advisers to Donald Trump, who had been banned from participating in the House investigation by the executive.

One of them, John Bolton, a former national security adviser, said he was ready to respond to a summons to the Senate. But the issue was relegated to later by Mitch McConnell and consensus is not guaranteed.

Without witnesses and additional documents, "the Senate trial will become a farce, a televised meeting for a mock trial," warned Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate.