One impeachment manager could not vote to impeach

One of the managers House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped to argue the case for President Donald Trump's impeachment was not allowed in Wednesday's vote to impeach. Pelosi has designated nine of her most trusted allies in the House to present the case when the trial reaches the Senate.

The Democrats, all of whom are lawyers and many of whom have deep experience investigating the president, face the arduous task of convincing skeptical Senate Republicans to convict Trump. A single article of impeachment - for "incitement of insurrection" - was approved by the House on Wednesday, one week after a violent mob of Trump supporters invaded the Capitol. At the time, lawmakers were counting the votes that cemented Trump's election defeat.

As members of the House who were in the Capitol when it was attacked - several hiding under seats as rioters beat on the doors of the chamber - the Democrats are also witnesses to what they charge is a crime. So are the Senate jurors. Pelosi appointed Jamie Raskin, a former constitutional law professor and prominent member of the House Judiciary Committee, as lead manager

One of the those who will question senators and present evidence in the case is Delegate Stacey Plaskett who represents the U. S. Virgin Islands. Because she represents a U.S. territory, not a state, Plaskett does not have voting rights and was not able to cast a vote for impeachment. But she will bring her legal experience as a former district attorney in New York and senior counsel at the Justice Department - and as one of Raskin's former law students.

"As an African American, as a woman, seeing individuals storming our most sacred place of democracy, wearing anti-Semitic, racist, neo-Nazi, white supremacy logos on their bodies and wreaking the most vile and hateful things left not just those people of color who were in the room traumatized, but so many people of color around this country," she said Friday.

The managers plan to argue at trial that Trump incited the riot, delaying the congressional certification of the electoral vote count by inciting an angry mob to harm members of Congress. Some of the rioters were recorded saying they wanted to find Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the count. Others had zip ties that could be used as handcuffs hanging on their clothes.

None of the impeachment managers argued the case in Trump's first impeachment trial last year, when the Senate acquitted the president on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. The House impeached Trump in 2019 after he pressured Ukraine's president to investigate Biden's family while withholding military aid to the country. It is unclear when the trial will start. Pelosi hasn't yet said when she will send the article of impeachment to the Senate. It could be as soon as next week, on President-elect Joe Biden's first day in office.

(Image Credit: AP)