According to the newspaper, the vote on the proposed resolution is due on 21 January.
Republicans in the Senate of Congress are preparing to conduct the process as part of the impeachment of President Donald Trump in an accelerated manner. This is evidenced by the resolution prepared by the leader of the Republican majority in the upper house, Mitch McConnell, which appeared in the Politico newspaper on Monday.
According to this document, the Republicans plan to give representatives of the White House defense and the prosecutors selected by the House of Representatives 24 hours each to present their position. This stage should not take more than two days. A total of 16 hours will then be allowed for the parties to respond to the senators’ questions. This is followed by a four-hour debate to determine whether to call witnesses and request any additional documents. If witnesses are not called, the upper chamber will vote on each of the two articles of the prosecution: abuse of power and obstruction of the investigation conducted by Congress.
According to the newspaper, the vote on the resolution proposed by McConnell establishing these rules is due in the Senate on Tuesday.
In September 2019, the House of Representatives of Congress, at the request of the Democrats, announced the launch of the impeachment of Republican Trump. The reason for the launch of the proceedings was the suggestion that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July telephone conversation to encourage Kiev to help the head of the American administration to be elected to a second term in 2020. Two articles of charges against Trump were approved by Democrats back on December 18. Last week, they were officially represented in the Senate.
Now the Senate will act as a jury, and the House of Representatives will actually stand by the prosecution. The trial will be led by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The dismissal of the president requires the support of at least two-thirds of the senators (at least 67 votes). With the current composition of the Senate, the probability of such a development is actually equal to zero, since Republicans occupy 53 seats out of 100 in the upper house of Congress.