Trump Impeachment: A Look At The 7 Case Managers Who Will Prosecute The President

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday announced the seven lawmakers who would prosecute the impeachment case against President Trump, opening the way for a Senate trial to begin next week.

The House voted 228-193 to approve the slate and send the articles of impeachment to the upper chamber to jump start the process that has been in abeyance since lawmakers approved the articles Dec. 18.

Reps. Adam Schiff of California, a former federal prosecutor who will lead the team; Jerrold Nadler of New York, the head of the Judiciary Committee; Zoe Lofgren of California, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Val Demings of Florida, Sylvia Garcis of Texas and Jason Crow of Colorado were to walk the articles of impeachment across the Capitol to the Senate later in the day, opening the way for the trial to begin on Tuesday.

In announcing the team, Pelosi and Schiff said the delay in transmitting the articles has allowed new evidence against Trump to surface.

Trump is accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He sought to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for $391 million in military aid and then blocking Congress from investigating his actions. His defense team will be led by White House lawyer Pat Cipollone and attorney Jay Sekuylow, chief counsel at the American Center for Law & Justice and a radio and television talk show host.

Democrats are pressing for the Senate to call witnesses for the trial, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposes that, saying the House should not have voted articles of impeachment until they had more evidence of wrongdoing.

The Senate will formally accept the articles Thursday, McConnell said.

Here’s a look at what each of the House impeachment managers brings to the process:

Schiff

The veteran lawmaker led the impeachment investigation as head of the Intelligence Committee. He has been at odds with the administration and Trump allies since 2017 in trying to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and is a close ally of Pelosi. He has been the face of the impeachment investigation, responsible for distilling the facts, and often a target of presidential tweets describing him as “shifty” and “corrupt.” He made the big decisions on subpoenas for the impeach inquiry and overall strategy. Republicans have accused him of deliberately misccharacterizing evidence. Before coming to Congress nearly two decades ago, he handled a number of high-profile cases as a federal prosecutor.

Nadler

The top Democrat on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for more than a decade drafted the two articles of impeachment approved by the House Dec. 18 and directed the debate that led to their acceptance. He has been in Congress since 1992 and has been involved in such high-profile disputes as the National Security Agency wiretapping of Americans. He and Trump have been feuding since he opposed a Trump development in New York City decades. Nadler gained attention for his opposition to former President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment. He is expected to lay out the constitutional basis for removing Trump from office.

Lofgren

The chairwoman of the House Committee on House Administration is probably the most experienced of the impeachment managers, having served as a staffer on the Judiciary Committee during the impeachment investigation of Richard Nixon and as a member of the House Judiciary Committee when Clinton was impeached in 1998. During the debate on impeachment she questioned how Republicans could claim Clinton’s sexual misconduct was more serious than what Trump is accused of doing. She has been in Congress since 1994.

Jeffries

The Judiciary Committee member and chairman of the House Democratic caucus was first elected to Congress in 2012 and has risen to fifth in the House leadership. Pelosi described him as “an accomplished litigator.” As a close Pelosi ally, he resisted the impeachment inquiry until the Ukraine scandal was made public and has since described the impeachment process as a clarifying moment that ultimately will unite the country.

Demings

The only member of both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees on the team was the first female police chief in Orlando, Florida, and is a relative newcomer to Congress. During the impeachment hearings, she got two diplomats to confirm they didn’t think Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, was acting in the nation’s interests as he tried to influence Ukraine policy.

Crow

The House Armed Services Committee member was an Army captain and combat veteran. He is in his first term in Congress, representing the kind of swing district Democrats need to hold come November. Crow did not participate in the investigative phase of the impeachment process but has a national security background. He was a member of a group of freshmen who said early on that Trump’s actions on Ukraine were impeachable. Crow was an Army Ranger and Bronze Star recipient who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “If Congress doesn’t stand up to these abuses, then our system of checks and balances will have failed,” he said in pushing the impeachment inquiry.

Garcia

The first-term Judiciary Committee member and former municipal judge in Houston and like Jefferies and Demings brings diversity to the House team. She defended the impeachment inquiry on Fox News, saying she didn’t come to Congress to impeach Trump but because she “believes in our democracy and the Constitution.”