Pelosi names managers for Senate impeachment trial of President Trump

Four weeks after the US House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday named managers for the Senate trial which is likely to begin next week.

Congressman Adam Schiff, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has been named as the lead manager.

The other managers who would be part of the argument on behalf of the House as the Senate holds its trial, which is likely to begin on January 21, are Congressman Jerry Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee; Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, chairwoman of the House Committee on House Administration; Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Chairman of the House Democratic and Congresswoman Val Demings, a member of both the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee.

"This is about the Constitution of the United States, and it's important the president to know, and Putin to know, the American voter, voters in America should decide who our president is, not that of a Putin -- in Russia," Pelosi told reporters at a news conference here.

"So today I'm very proud to present the managers who will bring the case, which we have great confidence in in terms of impeaching the president and his removal.

"But this further evidence insists that -- and we wouldn't be in this situation had we not waited -- there be witnesses and that we see documentation. And now you see some of that change happening on the Senate side. I hope it does, for the good of our country and to honour our Constitution," she said.

Earlier, Pelosi said the House will pass a resolution naming the managers, appropriating the funds for the trial and transmitting the articles of impeachment of the president of the United States for trying to influence a foreign government for his own personal and political benefit.

The White House immediately slammed Pelosi and the Democratic Party.

"The only thing Speaker Pelosi has achieved with this sham, illegitimate impeachment process, is to prove she is focused on politics instead of the American people," White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said.

"The Speaker lied when she claimed this was urgent and vital to national security because when the articles passed, she held them for an entire month in an egregious effort to garner political support. She failed and the naming of these managers does not change a single thing," she said.

Asserting that Trump has done nothing wrong, Grisham said he looks forward to having the due process rights in the Senate that Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats denied to him, and expects to be fully exonerated.

"In the meantime, after President Trump signs the historic China trade deal greatly benefiting the people of this country, he will continue working and winning for all Americans, while the Democrats will continue only working against the president," Grisham added.