House takes impeachment articles to Senate

Members of the US House of Representatives delivered the articles of impeachment against US President Donald Trump to the Senate on Wednesday evening to start the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.

Led by the House of Representatives' sergeant at arms and the House clerk carrying the documents on a tray, seven House managers walked through a nearly empty Statuary Hall and the Capitol rotunda.

More than a dozen Senate Democrats sat silently at their desks when the group arrived at the Senate. They were joined by two Republicans, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Kevin Cramer.

A third Republican, Chuck Grassley, presided from the dais.

The House members were ushered to a bench at the rear of the Senate chamber, where they sat in silence as the House clerk announced the impeachment resolution had passed, and Grassley responded: "The message will be received."

The vote of 228-193 along party lines earlier Wednesday to send the articles came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi withheld them for nearly a month to influence the rules of the trial.

The House also approved a resolution naming seven impeachment managers who will present the Democratic-controlled chamber's case against Trump during the trial that is expected to start on Jan 21.

Trump also will designate a team to defend him. White House counsel Pat Cipollone is expected to lead the team. Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow is also expected to join.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham accused Pelosi of lying "when she claimed this was urgent and vital to national security because when the articles passed, she held them for an entire month''.

Trump posted a single tweet: "Here we go again, another Con Job by the Do Nothing Democrats."

Later Wednesday morning at a White House ceremony for the signing of the first phase of a trade deal with China, attended by a delegation from China, Cabinet members and scores of others, Trump brought up the impeachment. He again denounced it as a "hoax", and told House Republicans in the audience that if they needed to, they could be excused to rush to the Capitol to vote against naming the Democratic managers and advancing the charges to the Senate. 

The House managers are expected to go to the Senate on Thursday to read the articles of impeachment against Trump.

Then Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the trial, is expected to be sworn in. Roberts will swear in all 100 senators.  

The Senate won't start the trial until Jan 21 so members can vote later this week to approve Trump's new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and to give them time to travel home on the Martin Luther King Jr holiday weekend before the trial requires them to be at their desks in the Senate six days a week.

At a news conference naming the impeachment managers, Pelosi said, "What is at stake here is the Constitution of the United States.''

She said Trump "violated his oath of office, undermined our national security, jeopardized the integrity of our elections, tried to use the appropriations process as his private ATM machine''.

Pelosi added: "He will be held accountable. He has been held accountable. He has been impeached. He has been impeached forever. They can never erase that."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said senators would take sworn oaths to render "impartial justice" in the trial. But he told reporters last month that he was "not an impartial juror" and recently s supported a resolution to dismiss the articles of impeachment in the Senate, though it is unlikely that the resolution would have enough support to pass.

Trump has recently renewed his call to dismiss the articles without a trial.

"There can be no full & fair trial in the Senate if Leader McConnell blocks the Senate from hearing witnesses and obtaining documents President Trump is covering up," Pelosi tweeted on Wednesday.

Pelosi named two House chairmen who led Trump's impeachment inquiry as prosecutors for the Senate trial: Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California, who led the probe, and Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York, whose committee approved the impeachment articles.

Pelosi also named representatives Zoe Lofgren of California, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Val Demings of Florida, Jason Crow of Colorado and Sylvia Garcia of Texas.

Pelosi and Charles Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, have pushed for a trial to include testimony from witnesses who didn't participate in the House investigation, including John Bolton, the former US national security adviser, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff.

The articles of impeachment approved by the House in December accuse Trump of pressuring Ukraine to open investigations to benefit him politically, including by withholding almost $400 million in aid to help the country combat Russian aggression, and of impeding Congress' investigation by preventing witnesses from testifying, and defying subpoenas for documentary evidence.

Schiff sent fresh evidence to Nadler on Tuesday, including a flash drive including some records produced by Lev Parnas, who worked with Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Parnas is under house arrest and awaiting criminal trial after he and an associate, Igor Fruman, were indicted in October on charges of violating campaign finance laws.

Some Republican senators want to call as a witness Hunter Biden, son of former vice-president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. The younger Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company that Trump asked Ukraine's leader to investigate —an act at the center of the House's impeachment case. Both Bidens deny any wrongdoing.

Reuters contributed to this story.