WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2020) The US House of Representatives, on a 228-193 party-line vote, confirmed seven lawmakers as impeachment managers for a Senate trial of President Donald Trump and authorized transmission of Articles of Impeachment to the upper chamber of Congress allowing the trial to begin.
The vote followed a debate in which Democrats charged Trump with attempting to rig the 2020 presidential election by asking Ukraine to investigate political rival - and former Vice President - Joe Biden, and then withholding US funds to the country.
"Withholding funds from Ukraine in return for a benefit that was personal and political, he [Trump] crossed a threshold. He gave us no choice," House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Republicans, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, said the House of Representatives impeachment of Trump was always a display of "raw partisan politics."
Following the vote, seven House impeachment managers - Congressmen Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, Hakeem Jeffries, Val Demings, Jason Crow, Zoe Lofgren and Sylvia Garcia - were expected to follow the House sergeant-at-arms and clerk through the Capitol rotunda to the Senate side and hand the Articles of Impeachment to secretary of the Senate.
The managers will serve as prosecutors in the Senate trial, which Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said will begin on Tuesday, with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts presiding.
