Speaker Mike Johnson will formally send the impeachment articles against Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10, nearly two months after House Republicans voted to impeach the Homeland Security secretary.
The long-delayed move, outlined by Johnson in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday, will kick off a trial process that could very well wrap up within a day or two if Democrats have their way.
Democratic senators are likely to offer a motion to dismiss the trial at the outset, and some Republicans have expressed interest in such a move. This would only require a simple majority, so Democrats can bypass the trial entirely if they stick together.
In his letter to Schumer, Johnson called on the New York Democrat to allow a full-fledged impeachment trial for Mayorkas, which could take weeks. Schumer hasn’t publicly said how he’d handle a motion to dismiss the trial, even as he has slammed the impeachment effort as a “sham” and an “embarrassment” intended to “appease” former President Donald Trump.
Here’s what Johnson told Schumer:
Schumer’s office responded by reiterating that once the House managers present the articles, senators will be sworn in as jurors the following day. At that point, senators can offer motions. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the president pro tempore of the Senate, will oversee the proceedings.
Senate conservatives have called on GOP leaders to work to ensure that a full trial can occur. With a Senate Republican leadership scramble taking place right now, this could impact the response inside the GOP Conference.
Of course, if all 51 Democrats vote to dismiss the trial, it won’t matter what Republicans do. And as you’ll likely recall, plenty of GOP senators have cast doubt on the House’s rationale for impeaching Mayorkas.
House Republicans delayed the formal transmission of the impeachment articles as Congress was barreling from one government funding deadline to another. With federal agencies now funded through September, the impeachment trial process is now slated to begin just two days after senators return to Washington from the two-week recess.
— Andrew Desiderio
