WASHINGTON • The United States Congress is headed towards a long stand-off over the parameters of the Senate trial of President Donald Trump as all sides have dug in, with Democrats demanding documents and witnesses while Republicans mocked the House's delay in transmitting the impeachment articles across the Capitol.
Through media appearances, letters and tweets, Mr Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday chided House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling her decision to hold on to the impeachment articles "unfair" and "absurd", respectively.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, accused White House officials of withholding "highly relevant" documents.
With Congress not due to return to Washington until Jan 6, officials prepared for a period of several weeks without any resolution. "We'll find out when we come back in session where we are," Mr McConnell told reporters.
Mr McConnell also referred reporters to comments he made on Fox News' Fox & Friends, accusing Mrs Pelosi of holding an "absurd position", and said she seemed to be trying to tell his chamber how to run a trial.
Since last week's near-party-line House vote to impeach Mr Trump, Mrs Pelosi has declined to send the two articles across the Capitol, the first step needed to begin the trial.
Mrs Pelosi wrote in a tweet on Monday that the House cannot move forward with choosing impeachment managers for the Senate trial "until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct".
She tweeted: "President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phoney complaints about the House process. What is his excuse now?"
At the heart of the Democrats' case is the allegation that Mr Trump tried to leverage a White House meeting and military aid, sought by Ukraine to combat Russian military aggression, to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation of former vice-president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, as well as a probe of an unfounded theory that Kiev conspired with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
While the articles approved last week relate only to Ukraine, Democratic lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee signalled on Monday that they are willing to consider additional charges related to the two-year investigation by a special counsel probing Russia's intervention in the 2016 elections.
The final outcome of the Senate trial is not in doubt - it would take a two-thirds majority, or at least 67 votes, to convict Mr Trump and remove him from office. A Washington Post analysis shows that 37 Republicans, so far, have announced that they would support Mr Trump and vote to acquit, more than enough to guarantee that outcome.
But Democrats believe they can make it a more difficult vote for Republicans if they can get documents and testimony that have so far been blocked.
WASHINGTON POST
