House Republicans will not send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate for possible trial until next week, as fears grow that the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, can stop the proceedings before they even begin.
“To ensure that the Senate has sufficient time to carry out its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week,” said Taylor Haulsee, a spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson ( R-La.).
“There is no reason for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial.”
House Republicans impeached Mayorkas in February – in the second attempt, after failing to get enough votes in the first – for failing to enforce federal immigration law and lying to Congress. on the “security” of the American border.
Both items were expected to be delivered to the Senate on Wednesday, Johnson announced last week, but Republicans — including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — expect Democrats to pass a motion to reject or file the debates.
“The timing of their delivery is very unfortunate,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told the Post Tuesday morning when asked about the April 10 date set by the House speaker.
“This should have been done at the beginning of the week so that we could have time in the Senate, as Republicans, to push back an early filing,” he said. “There will be a lot of pressure to stifle him, which I find really unfortunate.”
“If they are serious about using impeachment to highlight the disaster at the southern border,” Johnson added of his fellow House Republicans, “the timing of these impeachment charges impeachment should have been worked cooperatively with Senate Republicans so that we can determine what is the best way to use this impeachment to give it as public a hearing as possible.
By mid-afternoon Tuesday, other Republican senators announced that Johnson had agreed to submit the articles next week.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told reporters Tuesday that any attempt by Senate Democrats to end Mayorkas’ trial prematurely would be “the most violent act undertaken against the United States Senate, violent against the institution of the Senate, and it’s time.” -honored traditions, since November 2013, when Harry Reid launched – deployed – the nuclear option.
Lee was referring to the fact that the majority leader at the time lowered the closing threshold for judicial nominees to a simple majority rather than a two-thirds supermajority.
“I am very grateful to President Johnson for his bold move to delay this,” Lee added. “We don’t want this to happen on the eve of when members might be operating under the influence of jet fuel poisoning.”
McConnell said last week that he expected rival Schumer (D-NY) to object to the articles after he swore the senators in as jurors.
Schumer, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security have all called the move a political stunt.
Mayorkas is only the second Cabinet official in U.S. history to be impeached.
In 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap resigned the same day he was impeached for corruption. The Senate acquitted him a few months later in a trial.
New York Post
